Beer vs. Water

So here you are. In a beer land. Czech Republic is undoubtedly worldwide known for its beer history and beer brewing tradition. Beer is basically part of our culture and most of the time part of our bodies as well. Yep, we like drinking beer and coz of that some Czechs resemble beer kegs.

Crucial facts about Czechs in combination with their liquid treasures: 

1/ In general Czechs are not very confident people, so please let us to claim that we are brewing the best beer in a world. That´s one of a few things we are seriously proud of.

2/ Beer is usually cheaper than water (and other non-alcoholic drinks) here!!! So you are one foot in paradise and one in a grave.

Random drink menu

3/ In Czech we say beer is liquid bread = beer is suitable for vegetarians, too. 

4/ If you order beer in a pub, you may be asked whether you want 10° or 12° (or 11°). 10, 11, 12 doesn´t mean it has 10, 11, 12 percent of alcohol!! It indicates the percent by weight of extract (sucrose) in a solution. So yep, at the end and after fermentation it also refers to the amount of alcohol which is approx. 4% for 10 degree beer and 5% for 12 degree beer. We serve either small (0,3) or big (0,5) beers. 

5/ You know you can order light or dark beer (we say black). But you can also get so called "cut beer": half-dark, half-light or "milk" - a bit of beer, the rest is only foam.

"Milk" - photo by Pilner Urquell

6/ Speaking about foam - foam is indicator of quality and purity. No foam = stale beer. Too much foam = no tips for service, they   didn´t tap proper amount. In such a case I have a good tip for you: servers often say that the beer will "rise up", so wait 2 minutes (hard to resist, I know) and check the glass mark. The beer usually never reach the mark. Ask to tap it up. 

7/ Instead of "cheers" we say "na zdraví" (to a good health): listen here. 

8/ First tap glasses, then tap table. That´s some kind of weird ritual. We don´t know its reason, we hit tables automatically:-) 

9/ You have to look into each others eyes when tapping glasses, otherwise you can expect around 5-8 years of really bad sex. 

10/ Tap water is not served for free in most places (bars, restaurants). But that´s another (sad) story...