A tour of Pilsen's underground and the Pilsner Urquell Brewery through the eyes of Miša
We arrived in Pilsen a day earlier than the scheduled tours. We had time to walk around the above-ground part of the city. And it should be noted that the historical part of Pilsen is really beautiful.
Underground only with a helmet
First on the itinerary was a tour of Pilsen's historic underground. Before we started crawling, we got our helmets on. After a few minutes in the underground, we could see why. The ceilings here are very low and every now and then you could hear the thuds from hitting the heads of the other participants. Fortunately, it didn't drown out our guide's commentary. He was lovely to understand, funny and friendly. We learned historical facts, legends and of course explored the interesting underground environment.
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What really caught my eye were the posted signs with the names of the streets we passed under. This gave us a better idea of how much of Pilsen we had passed underground. An hour later we were out of the underground again and as a bonus we each received a beer voucher - a voucher for a small beer in selected restaurants.
Brewery tour with a Pilsner you can't taste anywhere else
At one o'clock the Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery tour started. It was already in a much larger group than the underground tour, but the guide handled it bravely with his distinctive and pleasant voice. The premises were equipped with modern technology, which with its projections superbly complemented his interpretation.
But the biggest treat for us was definitely stepping into the room with the giant tanks where the whole brewing process takes place. It was incredibly hot in there, but a great spectacle. The icing on the cake was the end of the tour, when we got to the cellars with wooden barrels, from which we got to taste one unfiltered and unpasteurized pilsner, which is not available anywhere else in the world.
After the tour, we couldn't pass up a visit to the renowned Na Spilce brewery restaurant, where we ordered a delicious beer goulash, pot roast and a duck roasted to a golden brown. It was a perfect experience that I recommend to all beer lovers!
And now I'll leave the floor to Rost'a, who as a lover of the golden beverage could not miss the tapping course in the capital of beer - Pilsen.
Beer tapping course through the eyes of Rosta
I was surprised at the outset that the tapping course includes a tour of the Pilsner Brewery, which is truly one of the golden legacies of our history. You will learn everything from who was the first brewer at the brewery to the brewing process, which has become much more efficient over time thanks to more modern technologies. But the goal of the brewers is the same after all these years - to have the same taste of beer for the customer as in the early days. And the only way they can do that is by using the highest quality ingredients and following the same process as before.
Underground "jade filter" tasting and 72-person elevator
During your tour of the brewery, you'll take a ride in the largest elevator in the Czech Republic, which can accommodate up to 72 people, and visit part of the very large underground cellar where beer used to sit and mature. There you will also taste the wonderful unfiltered beer. You can even try to crawl through a small hole in the barrel, which used to be used by the person who cleaned the inside of the barrel.
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Shit, smoothie, or milk?
Then came the actual keg beer tapping course. There were a total of 16 participants in the tap room, which resembled a small pub. Right off the bat, you get a pilsner from the tap handler and a great goulash with onions and bread on top. I couldn't have imagined a better start to the course. The bartender was really attentive, and when someone finished, he had another pilsner on the table in no time. Then we were given valuable advice on how to properly spin and what to watch out for. We tried three beer styles: smooth, snifter and milk. We skipped the čochtana, which is a beer without foam, which is not very popular in the Czech Republic, on the contrary, and is preferred more by the English or Germans.
What you make, you drink
What you film with more or less success, you drink. So by the end of the course I had quite a bit :) You put on your tap apron and you're on your way. At the beginning it was miserable, and once I shot more "milk" and then "chochtan" again. In the end, I managed to get the desired smoothness, even twice in a row! During the course we also broke the barrel, so it was really all over the place.
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The Czech Dream as Sewn
Over all, the tour with the course took 5 hours. It was a really great time which I enjoyed very much. The number of beers tapped, and then drunk, is basically irrelevant to the bartender, so as soon as you're done, you're off to tap another one. I think I had about eight. So for proper Czechs and beer drinkers, it's basically a dream come true :)
