wfowlks
Well-Known Member
So my work is sending me to Prague for 11 days in May. I am staying in old town. I was hoping that maybe you guys could give a Brewer some suggestions on where to go and what to do.
Headed to Prague...
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When are you going? I'll also be in Prague for 11 days in May, on my honeymoon.
May is a great month to visit Prague... In fact, I'd argue the best month... Because the Czech beer festival runs from May 7th through the 23rd! So, if you'll be there for 11 days in May, you literally can't miss the beer festival! Nearly every brewery in the Czech Republic will be there!
From one brewer to the next, I think you know where you need to go! lol
I'll be staying in the Jewish quarter, just down from Old Town.
May is a great month to visit Prague... In fact, I'd argue the best month... Because the Czech beer festival runs from May 7th through the 23rd! So, if you'll be there for 11 days in May, you literally can't miss the beer festival! Nearly every brewery in the Czech Republic will be there!
From one brewer to the next, I think you know where you need to go! lol
I'll be staying in the Jewish quarter, just down from Old Town.
Schmoltsbeer
Well-Known Member
There is a really good restaurant down some stairs strait across from the astrological clock. Also, if you walk by the market and smell weed, you will more than likely find it down some stairs. The street vendors are a rip off, though this time of year it may be fairly cheap. I am sure there are some breweries in Prague, but the Czech Republic isn't known for the Prague breweries, it is known for the breweries in Pilzen. Head West and you will find a plethora of breweries, head even more west (maybe an hour more) and you are in Bavaria. Hopefully this isn't too vague, it's been a couple of years. There is a ton of good beer in this area. Prost!
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wfowlks
Well-Known Member
I leave on may 10th come back may 21st
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wfowlks
Well-Known Member
Good call on that festival! It looks awesome. I'll def be checking that out.
Zly Casy is the best craft beer pub in Prague, but it is not real close to Old Town. Prague Beer Museum is in Old Town and has a huge selection of Czech beers. Not really a great bar, but lots of beer choices. American owned, FWIW.
Unetice is a newish brewery a bit north of Prague that you can reach in the Prague transit system. A lot of people think it is the best pilsner in the Czech Republic.
The original, of course, is Pilsner Urquell ("Urquell" means original). Best to drink it in a tankova, as "tank beer" is as fresh as beer can get. My favorite tankova is a branch of Lokal just down Dlouha from the Beer Museum, in Old Town. I usually try to lift a mug there on my first day in Prague.
Matuska, Falkon and Kocour are three other very good Czech brewers.
Unetice is a newish brewery a bit north of Prague that you can reach in the Prague transit system. A lot of people think it is the best pilsner in the Czech Republic.
The original, of course, is Pilsner Urquell ("Urquell" means original). Best to drink it in a tankova, as "tank beer" is as fresh as beer can get. My favorite tankova is a branch of Lokal just down Dlouha from the Beer Museum, in Old Town. I usually try to lift a mug there on my first day in Prague.
Matuska, Falkon and Kocour are three other very good Czech brewers.
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wfowlks
Well-Known Member
Pivo!! Thanks guys for all the suggestions. Some of the guys I work with from Prague suggested zly clasy. But I will deg check out the others. Thanks so much
Brew_G
Well-Known Member
Prague is awesome. Just enjoy it all while you're there - it's hard to go wrong!
Thanks for the suggestions guys! And thanks for starting this thread OP!
How was your trip? Mine was fantastic. Prague is really an amazing city. The beer fest was kind of a disappointment though. Much better drinking in the city itself.
So tell us more. What did you drink and where did you drink? My 13th trip is in a month, and I try to find new places every time. I'll bet you've found some I have not.
We drank and ate all over Prague, but here are a few of our favorite places:
Salabka winery
This was right by the zoo and botanical gardens. This was the best meal of our entire vacation, the service was fabulous, the food and atmosphere were elegant without being too pretentious, and their dry reislings were amazing. I can't recommend this place enough.
Pivovar U Tří Růí
This was a brewpub and restaurant in old town. The food was good, not great, but their beer was amazing, and they brewed some different beer than what you typically find in Prague. They served the only IPA I found anywhere on the entire trip. It was a Simcoe hopped one. It wasn't labeled as an IPA, but it definitely was of the IPA style.
There was also a fun little place in lesser town. I can't recall the name, and couldn't find it on Google, but it was fairly close to Charles bridge, if I recall correctly, and they have a basement "dungeon" dining/drinking area. It's lit by candles and a couple of very dim lights. It actually takes quite awhile for your eyes to get adjusted it is so dark in there. It was a bit gimmicky, as in trying hard to push the old-style dungeon feel, but still very cool.
Are you there so often for work? Or do you just enjoy vacationing there?
I married my high school sweetheart when I was in my late 40s, and we agreed to honeymoon somewhere neither of us had been before. We went to Prague in 2004, and have returned every year since. We'll be staying in Vinohrady this time; it's on the east side of Prague.
The winery sounds fantastic, and I've never heard a word of it before. Will try to get my wife to come with me to check it out. She does not drink, but tolerates my pubs. Not sure if I can get her to add wineries to her tolerance list or not.
Nice job getting all the diacritical marks on the other pub, which means At the Three Roses. I met the brewer my first time there, and agree they do some very nice stuff. I later learned it is owned by Russians, and that the Czech people are not uniformly happy about that fact (to put it somewhat obliquely).
The winery sounds fantastic, and I've never heard a word of it before. Will try to get my wife to come with me to check it out. She does not drink, but tolerates my pubs. Not sure if I can get her to add wineries to her tolerance list or not.
Nice job getting all the diacritical marks on the other pub, which means At the Three Roses. I met the brewer my first time there, and agree they do some very nice stuff. I later learned it is owned by Russians, and that the Czech people are not uniformly happy about that fact (to put it somewhat obliquely).
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OUTSTANDING thread! Prague is on my list of MUST visits, always has been.
Anyone have any picts of their trips they want to share?
Cheers
Jay
Anyone have any picts of their trips they want to share?
Cheers
Jay
Meh, you go from Prague to Munich for the beer gardens, not for better beer!
Any of the Lokal branches are great places to drink Urquell. The one near the bridge also offers a bartending course that sounds completely fascinating, on the off chance you have a big enough group to take it in English.
Any of the Lokal branches are great places to drink Urquell. The one near the bridge also offers a bartending course that sounds completely fascinating, on the off chance you have a big enough group to take it in English.
thadeus_d3
Well-Known Member
Just got back from Prague and Paris in February. There's amazing food and beer in Prague. We ate at U Webru. The food was delicious as was the beer. The prices were also very reasonable. The only thing that we didnt care for, was the cigarette smoke, which was found in every pub or restaurant in the city.
We also went to Nota Bene for craft beer and food. Their Valasek Vsetin NZ IPA was terrific. Unfortunately, the main course that we wanted was not available so we headed to Na Brezance for dinner. The food was great and the beer was incredible. We ended up eating and drinking at Na Brezance for our final meal of the trip.
Have fun! You'll love it there.
We also went to Nota Bene for craft beer and food. Their Valasek Vsetin NZ IPA was terrific. Unfortunately, the main course that we wanted was not available so we headed to Na Brezance for dinner. The food was great and the beer was incredible. We ended up eating and drinking at Na Brezance for our final meal of the trip.
Have fun! You'll love it there.
thadeus_d3
Well-Known Member
Nota Bene is big on the whole locally sourced gig, and they have a real talent for running out of things. But for that, it is the best place in Prague if you want both to eat and to drink great beer. They rotate their craft beer menu quite regularly.
thadeus_d3
Well-Known Member
I really dug the food and handful of beers that we tried. It was also a very short walk to our hotel. If you haven't booked your hotel in Vinohrady, you should checkout Hotel Galileo. Huge, clean rooms in a good location w/ free breakfast and a very cheap nightly rate.
We've booked a flat overlooking Jiriho z Podebrad for ten nights from Apartments in Prague. I think we are paying about $90/night. There is even a brewer or two at the three times a week farmer's market on the square there.
thadeus_d3
Well-Known Member
Sounds awesome! I'd love to visit Prague and Budapest again, but during the summer. That'll be a few years down the road.
There is no bad time to visit Prague, although August may be the least good. We need to make it to Budapest one day as well.
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wfowlks
Well-Known Member
Yeah the weather this last week was PHENOMINAL. I did find the beer fest to be a dissapointment and twice as expensive as the local beer around. My work office was actually next to the Staropramen Brewery, so when we were drinking coffee on the lookout deck and walking to work, we could smell the sweet mash.
But my co-workers too me to what what I refer to as the Beer Garden on the Mountain, others call it Letna Park. And my other favorite places were, Kolkovna, Zly Casy, The Prague Beer Museum, U Kroka and a place that translates to The Thirsty Deer.
This is the view from Letna Park. I was sad that it was raining the night before I left or I would have gone back:
But my co-workers too me to what what I refer to as the Beer Garden on the Mountain, others call it Letna Park. And my other favorite places were, Kolkovna, Zly Casy, The Prague Beer Museum, U Kroka and a place that translates to The Thirsty Deer.
This is the view from Letna Park. I was sad that it was raining the night before I left or I would have gone back:
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wfowlks
Well-Known Member
So I went there, I didn't really like their IPA, because the one i was served was warm and flat. And that was a problem that I found when I tried other ones at the beer festival that the carbonation wasn't there. But I found it funny because when you get a Pilsner they are often super carb'd.
The ones i did like from Tri Ruzi were the IIHF beer, and their pilsner.
I do also concur with the food, not great, but decent, more on the expensive side
The winery is right between the botanical gardens and the zoo, so there is a bunch of other stuff for your wife to see right by there. Also, the restaurant at the winery is truly fantastic. The food and atmosphere are truly more luxurious than what you're paying. It's a bit more expensive than most places in Prague, but still cheap compared to US standards. Plan a trip to a fancy restaurant that just happens to be at a winery!
Yeah, we had fun at the beer festival. We made some friends with who we like to refer to as the "British National Drinking Team" while we were there. It was rowdy, obnoxious fun... But the beer was kind of expensive, and overall a bit of a disappointment, as you said. We only went once while we were there.
Letna park was a neat little surprise. My wife and I are both runners, and we would go for a run every morning we were there. The park was a great place to jog through, and the views of the city were amazing.
That's disappointing that yours was warm and flat. Mine was perfect. In fact, I thought was a great IPA. Did you have the Simcoe one? I do happen to love simcoe hops, so maybe I was a bit biased in that regard.
One thing I hated about the pilsners in Prague was the super high carbonation level. The vast majority were overcarbed for my tastes. All in all though, I don't think you go to Prague for the variety of interesting beers. You go to Prague to drink pilsners in a cool and interesting atmosphere.
I didnt pay more than $2.25 usd for a half litre of beer, so if you are paying a lot more your in a trap.
Prague in general is a whacky town, cold war influenced and worth a trip.
If you need a hotel try the boot across from the german embassy.
Prague in general is a whacky town, cold war influenced and worth a trip.
If you need a hotel try the boot across from the german embassy.
There were quite a few places that sold beer for $4 apiece that I drank at (and many I spent under a buck for a beer). It may have been a trap, but I was on vacation to enjoy myself, not pinch pennies. And even the most expensive places in Prague are cheaper than most places in the US.
You'll pay $2 or $3 for a beer at Nota Bene, and it will likely be 0.4 liter to boot, but when the food is that good, it is hard to complain. Mostly craft beer, to boot.
SFBrewer
Active Member
You may be referring to U Sudu, my personal favorite bar....circa 1995. Lots of other underground places in Prague....and if you get a chance to go to Krakow you'll find much of the same.
You may be referring to U Sudu, my personal favorite bar....circa 1995. Lots of other underground places in Prague....and if you get a chance to go to Krakow you'll find much of the same.
I just googled this place, and that's not the place I was referring to. Though this place looks pretty cool too
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