Although there's quite a bit of standard German beer floating around, there isn't very much Czech beer. Sure, you can find Pilsner Urquell, sometimes even unfiltered, and occasionally Staropramen or Kozel. I've been told it's because Czech beer just doesn't travel very well. I guess that's the mark of its delicate quality and natural ingredients, but every once in a while you do come upon something less usual. I think the first time I had Primátor was with a "Prague Meal" during some beer/gastrofest years ago, although I might have picked one up from Cervezorama even before that. Well, I got Exklusiv, a "light, strong beer", a while ago, but hung on to it without really knowing why. I guess my future self knew it would be fitting to go with a talk about 19th century beer and brewing industry development, since that's when Bohemia's pilsner style took off. Now, Exklusiv isn't a pilsner, in fact on their website they call it a Maibock, but it's an example of good beer and good Czech beer, so that's good enough for me.
It's surprisingly strongly colored, something like an Imperial IPA might come out, with an orangey beige head. The aroma is slightly appley, but pleasingly tart. The flavor is bitter, but it has an odd medley of bitters, with a range of notes and depth. It certainly doesn't taste like chocolate, but that dark bitterness is there, all the way up to citrus pithy pokey bitter. It's a light feeling beer, dancing over the tongue, and going down easy in spite of the strong flavors. After a bit some sweetness starts to come out, sugary rather than syrupy as sometimes happens. It seems like an interesting blend of a craft IPA and a lager, the kind of thing you might expect from a small craft brewery, but not from 19th century industrialists. Not that they would tell anybody about anyway.
Suppler: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €3.29
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