Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: pivovar

This isn't Pilsner Urquell, although the mug is a Pilsner Urquell mug. This is actually U Dvou Kocek's house brew, made in their brewery. It's an unfiltered, unpasteurized beer, like most beers sold in Prague brewpubs, and would probably be considered a Lezak, or lager.

There are several more brewpubs in Prague besides U Fleku and U Medvidku, and this is one of them. It's history has restarted several times after fires, but the current building dates mostly to the 1780's, in the era of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Supposedly he used to sit behind the kettle on the left, although I don't know if the current pub owners can prove this claim. The beer is good, and as cheap as Pilsner Urquell, which is also sold here.

This is the fermentation tank at U Medvidku. Note that it's wooden and open.

Here are two more industrial-era closed copper kettles, even if they are small. The all-paper office is a nice historical touch too, even if it appears to be fully operational (with a 1990's era phone, from the looks of it).

As in most brew pubs, the U Medvidku brewery is openly displayed to the public. To see it, though, or to drink the products, you have to go to the second (in European terms first) floor, as the ground floor is a more food-oriented pub that serves Budweiser Budvar beer and other more mainstream products. This kettle interests me somewhat as I don't know exactly what it's used for. Here I'll confess my ignorance of brewing. At first sight, it looks like an extremely old fashioned, pre-industrial copper kettle for brewing malt, but it looks too shallow for that. On the other hand, U Medvidku's output in very moderate. Note that here the kettle is empty.

Another brewpub in Prague, almost as famous as U Fleku, is U Medvidku. U Medvidku is mostly known for their X33 dark beer, supposedly the most powerful beer in the world (although 33 indicates 33 degrees Plato, rather than 33% alcohol). However, a milder, and far cheaper option is Old Gott, seen here. My understanding is that the name is a pun in several respects, referencing "God" in German, but also, probably, the now-geriatric Czech pop star Karel Gott.

This is the end product of the Novomestsky Pivovar, which although a brewpub literally translates to "New Town Brewery." This beer, while light (in the Czech sense), is nevertheless cloudy due to its being unfiltered. It's rich in taste as well, which is typical of its also being unpasteurized. Pasteurization of beer is more to increase shelf life than to improve food safety, so although its generally safe to drink, it isn't economical to bottle it usually, so a brewpub or brewery is usually the only place you can drink it.

This is one of the fermentation vats at the Novomestsky Pivovar, a brewpub on Vodickova in Prague. Most of the brewpub is located underground in medieval cellars thought to have long been connected to brewing, although the current business only dates to 1993. These vats are unusual for places like this in that they're fully modern, as in stainless steel, while most brewpubs pride themselves on using very old fashioned methods in order to improve quality. To be fair, though, these vats are open, which is old fashioned, although they're protected behind glass.

I just posted this shot because I liked the composition. That's about it, really.

Prior to the 19th Century, there was almost a brewery for every major pub in every city in Central Europe, with only industrialisation changing the custom. In well-preserved cities like Prague, however, the buildings have been preserved and kept in use as pubs, hotels, and other businesses. I'm not aware, however, if this one is a hotel, a pub, both, or something else.

This old brewery was nothing but a ruin the last time I photographed it four years ago or so. Now it's been fully rebuilt into the "Regiocentrum Nový Pivovar," which according to what I've found online, is "multi-functional." I didn't have a chance on this trip to investigate what that really means, though. A few breweries, surprisingly, still function around Hradec Kralove, but I'm assuming that they don't use this old facility.

Here's my alternate shot of Hrad Kotnov. The foreground is a bit dark, I know, but I wanted to show the variation of architectural styles.

Tabor's castle, Hrad Kotnov, was built in 1420, although like many castles it has been rebuilt many times since. The tower is the only original aboveground part still intact. The current castle is more the product of the 1532 reconstruction, after it was burned down in a fire, and the 1613 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt into a support facility for a brewery, which was physically connected in 1844. The brewery remained in operation until 1981, and then the castle fell into disuse before being reconstructed, as both a brewery and tourist attraction, in 2004.

Real proper breweries, regardless of age, brew their beer in copper kettles, and that naturally includes Plzensky Prazdroj. I was amazed that I got this photo to come out at all, since I shot it with 100 ISO Fomapan shot through an Ikoflex, using a bad light meter.

In the old days, Plzensky Prazdroj had its own industrial railway, and the equipment is still there on display. The designs of the equipment are noticably Czech/Austrian, although I don't know a lot about all of it.

Here's a general view of the Plzensky Prazdroj Pivovar, built (mostly) in 1842-1900 or so.

This water tower is part of the original Plzensky Prazdroj Pivovar (brewery) in Plzen, home to the world's first Pilsener beer, Pilsener Urquell, invented in 1842 with the construction of the brewery.

This is another mystery location, but I think it's somewhere close to Kolin, or possibly Pardubice. This factory looks like a pivovar, or brewery, but I could be wrong about that too. I just thought it looked cool. Does anybody know where this is?