During the short Easter break, my mom, my best friend Gaelle, her mom Claudette and I decided to explore some of Europe. We enjoyed a quick Euro trip that included Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.
While in the Czech Republic, we decided to tour the Budweiser Budvar Brewery and learn more about this delicious beer. We had booked a private tour to the city of Ceske Krumlov and to end the journey right, we decided to have some beer.
Dating back to the 15th century, Budweiser Budvar exports to over 60 countries (YES! Lebanon is one of them) around the world.
It has 6 main types of beer:
1. Budweiser Budvar original 5% alcohol
2. Budweiser Premium Budvar Dark Lager 4.6% alcohol
3. Budweiser Budvar Classic 4% alcohol
4. Budweiser Budvar free 0.5% alcohol
5. Budweiser Budvar Strong 7.6% alcohol
And 3 types of Pardal beer, a more bitter type of beer
But wait, isn’t Budweiser American? Well according to the Czech, the name “Budweiser” was taken by the Americans long time ago. Immediate branding was made, making the brand very popular; and a trademark dispute over the use of the name “Budweiser” is still ongoing between the two. However, the recipe used by them is completely different.
The brewing process includes 4 ingredients: mold, hop cones, yeast, air and water. It takes approximately 10 hours and includes 3 stages:
- Mashing
- Straining
- Boiling of the wort (this creates the bitter taste)
Usually Czech breweries make the beer in one month. However, they repeat the entire process 3 times, so it actually takes Budweiser a total of 3 months to make a barrel of beer.
The longer the period of fermentation, the more alcohol it has, and the stronger the taste of the beer.
We enjoyed a very informative tour around the brewery that included detailed explanations of the different steps as well as a beer tasting towards the end, where we only got the chance to taste the Budweiser Budvar Original. The entire tour was about 60 minutes. Although I am not a beer fan per say, I enjoyed the bitter taste of the beer.
Now that summer is approaching, I am looking forward to lazy beach days, enjoying a nice ice cold beer. Cheers!
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