How to drink beer in Prague

Czech beer is world famous. The Czech Republic is the No. 1 beer drinking nation on the planet, with an annual per capita consummation of some 156 liters. Beer is served almost everywhere in Prague, even in breakfast cafés! It tastes terrific and it is cheap.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. The Czech Republic is known as the country famous for its beer production and consumption. Beer is ingrained in Czech culture so much that the beer industry is considered a part of the national heritage. Czechs rate beer as part of their lives. They even call beer the “Liquid Bread” and they very often consume it in that manner. Popular Czech beer brands are: Plzensky Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquel), Gambrinus, Radegast, Velkopopovicky kozel, Budvar and Staropramen.
2. Czech brewing has a long history and Czech beer is among the best in the world (Czechs would swear that it is the number one), not to mention the price! Half a liter costs approximately 20 CZK. Now there can be no wonder about the reasons for the beer-tourism! More and more tourists come over to Prague only to drink price pleasant and at the same time high quality beer.
   As inquiry says a beer is second most popular attraction in the Czech Republic. The beer tourism – traveling to any destination to drink cheap beer and have cheap entertainment – is still very popular. Most beer tourists are from United Kingdom. With cheap flights to Prague, cheap Prague hotels and meal they are coming to Bohemia.
3. Of course, in comparison with the time before Velvet revolution, getting and staying in Prague is much easier than it was. Today tourists do not have problems in finding Prague hotels like this one http://www.prague-hotels.org.uk/ although the amount of tourists visited the Czech Republic in comparison with 1989 has grown on 250 %. In 2005 Czech Republic has visited 6 336 128 foreign tourists which in total have lived in Czech Republic 19 595 035 nights.
   The Czech Republic is at world first place with sold beer in count to a citizen. It is 16 million hectoliters, 156, 5 liters to one person. But as brewing industry says, 15-20 per cents of sold beer in Czech Republic is drunk by foreigners visiting Prague and the Czech Republic. The quantity of a beer sold abroad in is also rising.
4. President Vaclav Havel may be the best spokesman beer has ever had in the Czech Republic, at least in public office. Havel loves to take visiting politicians from Prague hotel to pubs. He once skipped a function in the U.S. to go drink beer and watch John Cale. In fact, one of Havel's plays is based on the time he spent working in a brewery before the Revolution.
   "I suppose that drinking beer in pubs has got a good influence on the behavior of Czech society, because beer contains less alcohol than for example wine, vodka or whisky and therefore people's political chat in pubs is less crazy." Vaclav Havel, October 1995

Tips & Warnings

• One last thing is important about Czech beer – it is preferred by Czechs to drink it in bottles instead of in cans, and in the pub rather than at home.
• As I see it thus maybe beer travelers will have cheaper beer in Slovakia, Ukraine or Latvia, but best beer is in only Czech Republic.