Watched the Shawshank Redemption last night, and the narrator mentioned that a beer in question was a Bohemian-style beer. Anyone know what that means? Is that the kind DD drinks?

It means in the style of golden Czech lager.

This is the real thing:

Its similar to Hanyak style beer.

WTF?

Probably has a scraggly beard and wears sandals.

Pretty much all of what we think of as Modern American beer(golden colored pilsner beer) descended directly or in directly from Pilsner Urquel first brewen in Pilsen, Bohemia(Czech Republic) in 1842.

Funny, one of my favorites is Bohemian Black Lager... sure ain't a golden...

Original Shiner was as Hanyaky as it got for us anyway....

For an authentic Pils, I prefer....

The quality of flavor descended too. The only thing mass market American beer represents well is the technical side of quality control.

Yes, the real Budweiser is very good. It's a close second for me.

I seem to remember there is a beer on the market that says "Bohemian Beer" somewhere on the label. Maybe it's Old Milwaukee?

44henry

Many beers are called pilsner, few are Pilsner.

Thats is where we differ. Most of the time a beer that you could not use to safely view a solar eclipse is not worth drinking.

What is it about the color that's important for you?

Ever had Satropramen? I'd say it is probably third best, after Urquel and Budvar...

It's Staropramen. Nice, but hard for me to find.

Sorry about the typo, not real common around here either, but one of the local shops had it for a while last summer.

How would you say Sam Adams Noble Pils stacks up? I think It's very good but not quite as good as the others.

Not the color really but the taste. I like a beer with real flavor. Grew up in the shadow of the home of Budweiser but if it came to a choice of a Bud of water, water would win.

He's talking the Czech Budweiser, Scott.

It's pretty good, a little more in the style of a north German Pils being a little sharp in the hop flavor and having less of the bready malt characteristics of the Czech beer.

Oops!

Could be a different story. Never tried one.

+1

You're making a mistake assuming that color implies flavor, or the lack of color implies lack of flavor. St. Jakobus at the Forschungsbrauerei is full of flavor and blond in color. It'll knock you on your ass if you're not careful too!





You grew up in the Czech Republic? When I wrote original Budweiser I didn't mean St. Louis.

My take on the mass American beers is it is a consistant product, but one I consistantly avoid

This is the original Budweiser that Mathman and I are referring to. That St Louis drainwater isn't the original Budweiser, a Pilsner, nor in my humble opinion even a real beer.

I drink a fair share of PBR, hey I got a budget.

Unfortunately AB could afford better lawyers so we get this label in the US:

Drink less, but drink better.

To me color is an indicator of a beer with a real flavor. It is not exclusive. Thus my recent purchase of an awful beer.

I like beers like Kiltlifter and they are light in color but beers like Cafe Negro and Terminator Stout are my favorite.

Yep, until a month ago, my local grocery store was carrying Czechvar and I kept them restocking. Have to find another source now.

All beers get taxed pretty heavily up here, so it doesn't cost that much more to drink real beer vs. pizzwater.

In my opinion, Pabst Blue Ribbon is pretty good. I rank it above Bud, Busch or any other US-brewed fizzypiss, in fact. Yeah, I know -- that's not exactly high praise. But given a choice, I'll take PBR over many others, and above all others in that price class. No, it's not a premium beer. It's just a decent, drinkable brew at a good price.

We just have different thresholds Rocky. I can't drink "lower" than a beer I like without a bunch of qualifications.

My good friend mathman, if you had ever been forced to consume really (and I mean REALLY) bad beer because that's all there was, you would have lower standards, too.

Not that I think mine are all that low. I genuinely think that some of the lower-priced beers we have are more than passable, PBR being one. The now-gone Stroh's was another. They have body, color, mouth feel, and at least some hoppiness.

But then again, ANYTHING is better than a rusty steel can of Carling Black Label that's been sitting in tropical sun for months, drunk blood warm.

Maybe, if someone holds a gun on me.

I have walked right past an ice chest full of Coors Light to fill a Solo cup from a garden hose.

When I was in college, I'd never pass up a free beer. Now, if I'm going to drink a beer, it better be a good beer. There are simply too many good choices these days to compromise, and I simply don't drink enough to save a couple of bucks.

Perhaps, but you can believe me when I say that men would literally have killed you to get that Coors Light compared to what they WERE drinking.

Not me. Don't drink beer except for root beer from time to time.

Haven't had a good root beer for some time.

Coors Light? I thought we were talking beer not watered down horse urine.

I love Czechvar(budvar) It is brewed in the town my family emmigrated from. When I found that out, it explained a lot about my family history!

The beer I was weened on was National Bohemian, flagship brew of the old now-defunct National Brewing Company in Baltimore, Md. Back in the day, they had an 80% market share in B'more, and if you walked into a corner bar in town and simply asked for a beer that is what you got. Heck, a lot of bars only served National Bohemian- or as everybody called it, Natty Boh. Now it is contract brewed in Millwaukee, I think, and is a mere shadow of it's former self. I still buy a 6-pack of it from time to time just for a nostalgia kick.

I remember that one.

Anytime you drink you put miles on your liver. Makes no sense to put them on in the Kia known as Bud/Miller/Coors. I'll take quality over quantity. Wanna put my miles on in a Caddy.

The fire brewed beer of yesteryear.

Bought some of this tonight.

Think I'll be enjoying Czech beers from now on

Excellent.

Since you're a new convert, what did it present to you flavor wise that others had not? How did you find it superior?

Have been thinking about buying some beer lately. Havent drank in a long time. About the only beer I ever "enjoyed" was Yuengling Lager. How would something like this relate taste wise?

Czech Pilsner is what beers like Yuengling do a weak job of pretending to be.

Thanks, ill have to check if anyone has it around here.

Try Pilsner Urquell, Czechvar, or Staropramen. Don't buy a dusty sixer that's been hanging around. Find a good store that has enough turnover in the real beer section so you get a fresh sample.

It had the best flavor versus "drinkability" of any beer I've had to date.

I like a wide variety of beers.
Being from the PNW I get to try a lot of micros and though I enjoy many, they all seem to be heavy on taste and low on drinkability. This beer had both.

Well said. Czech Pilsner is quite satisfying to a person who likes real beer, but isn't heavy and filling. Nor does it exhibit the "hop overhang" characteristic of a lot of amped up micros.

There are others having this wonderful balance, but you need to get them at their sources. For me that means the golden lager served in Bavarian beer halls, of a cask conditioned bitter hand pumped from the cask in a London pub.

Examples:

served here




Or this:


Served here:

Beatnik's Better Beer - or 'whatever' Jack Kerouac drank.

Stroh's used to have that on the label of the long necks, but I've seen nothing but cans for a long time.

It's still available here. Miller bought them twenty years ago.

Beer? Did someone say Beer?

Had a good day,Thursday!Walked out the back door,going to work,and stumbled over a sampler pack from Boulevard brewing co.I have had a few of them,but 2 or 3 were new to me.Still don't know who left it,as I send a few electricians work.
Thursday night,wifey and I met friends in town for dinner and a few beers,and I scored 5 different six packs of Bells brewing co beer and a six pack of Founders PA.Did I mention that we are all beer snobs!
As soon as the beer fridge has enough room,I will try a few Czeck beers.
Right now,I'm having a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter with a steak!One of my Sunday night favorites.
Sorry to hi-jack,I know that this was a thread on Bohemian beer,but I did not post in the last beer thread.I was hoping to keep it going,for a while,thru the summer. Lightman

I'm with ya, I've been trying many different beers this summmer and it's nice to compare notes with some one else.

Hacker-Pschorr Weisse, A Bavarian wheat beer. Cant say I was crazy about it. Likely will not buy again.

New Glarus, Totally Naked. OK but I much prefer their Spotted Cow.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, it's starting to become "acceptable". A large beer mug seems to improve the taste.

I'm headed to a large Beer selection store in a few days, something like 462 different brands on hand, where do you start?

I start and end with Schlitz....

Can't say orange peels, twigs n' berries are my gig.

It's a big world out there buddy. It never hurts to expand ones horizons...As far as orange peels and twigs...nah.

Wisconsin is full of fine beers; I've had most of them that don't need fancied up!

I just tried the Czech pilsners, I would give them a try.

Deschutes Black Butte Porter is a local beer that I would highly recommend as well.

The beer I drink isn't fancied up, but it's way beyond Schlitz.

It never hurts to orange a good Belgian White Ale...
I'm just sayin.....

Urquell? Czechvar?

I don't think either are that great.

You partook in the retro Schlitz I take it?

So that's the one you mean. I will give it an honest try if I see it.

While I have you on, your thoughts on Hofbrau and where to find it?

I'm not sure of their distribution.

Which version of Hofbrau do you mean?

Plain jane HB label. NOT the Oktoberfest version....

http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html

I haven't had it here. At the 'Haus it was good, but it's on the light end of the Munich Helles style. Not a "big" beer.

Mathman,

have you sampled the U Fleku when in Prague? It made me a fan of Budvar!

Sycamore

Can't say I have. Tell me about it.

There's more than a few Bohunks around here so I can answer this confidently.

The cap on a Bohemian style beer is on the bottom of the bottle.

the Czechs call it a 'dark lager'. I can't remember if U Fleku is the name of the beer, or of the place they make and sell it.

The place is supposedly the original brewery/beer hall for the stuff, and is an old tradition. They play a lot of accordion, its kind of how I pictured Bavaria, (which isn't that far, actually) and might reflect the heavy Austrian influence for so much of Czech history.

Any way, the beer is very dark, but tastes lighter than a stout. The place is somewhere south of Wenceslas Square, and in the New Town, if memory serves.

Sycamore

Who cares this is the kind of beer I like.

I got my hands on some.

On my way to a grill-out at a friend's house I stopped to get some beer for the party. When I went to the cooler to get a couple of our usual favorites, there it was. Schlitz original 60's formula. Remembering what I wrote here, I bought a sixer so we could give it a try along with our regulars.

Here's the funny part. When I brought it into my friend's house, he and Lance (his wife's boss) started laughing. It turns out they had just been talking about really wanting to get some and try it out. I had never talked about it with either one of them.

Anyway, we all liked it fine. Particularly Lance because it reminded him of the sips he got from his dad and uncle back in the day.

For my palate it was certainly more enjoyable than the usual mass market suspects, and I actually liked it. But it isn't going to displace my usual favorites in the golden lager category.

I don't know if it's an all malt beer, but it didn't strike me as something that would pass Reinheitsgebot muster. There was a sweet note in the flavor that's usually telltale for brewing with adjuncts. Corn grits being the likely suspect. Yuengling is another "old school" American Lager producer that does this. This is not the same sweetness that I taste in a more heavily malted "real" beer. I would have liked the Schlitz more if the hops were a little sharper so the sweetness would be better balanced.

It was a pleasant diversion, but I can't call it serious Pilsner. It just didn't have the bready malt note and crisp hop bite of the real thing.

Mathman, you're gonna be proud of me. The frosted mug has been put away and a 14 oz tall beer glass is my new best friend.

Recent purchases have included Three Floyds brand called the "Robert Bruce". A dark full of body beer with sweetness to it.

My new favorite might be Hoegarden, A Belgium wheat Ale. Oh so smooth. oh so good.

It's interesting how your taste is developing.

Hoegaarden is a witbier, a style I generally don't care for. They're usually spiced, and that spoils them for me.

You are correct, it is a witbier,However I detect no spice in the taste, Just a smooth taste with zero bitterness or aftertaste. (I think I will go have one).

No coriander? No lemon zest?


If you like zero bitterness, don't raid my 'fridge.

I wonder if I am tasting a touch of lemon? But it certainly isnt noticeable.

So many new beers, so little time..

I'm actually traveling some distance to a store which carries hundreds of beers. It's mind boggling.

So are you saying it didn't suck?

I said I liked it in at least two places.

I don't know what "Bohemian style" means or about most of the other beers mentioned in this thread. What I do know is that the Shiner Bohemian Black Lager is straight awesome. One of my favorite beers I've ever had.

Got to agree with you.Have several in the beer fridge. Lightman

Tried a new one this weekend. Potosi Pilsner Czech Style...not bad, but it definitely was not quite up to the Urquel or Budvar standard. As I've said before, I'm a big fan of the Czech beers. My family came from near Pilsen in Chech Republic(seven generations ago), when they got here they were brewers and ran a small brewery in Yuba, Wisconsin.

I do rather enjoy PBR though....it really isn't a crime...