Pivní Filosof - Beer Philosopher

It's been almost a month since I posted something here. I've been too busy, and brain-fried to write anything, let alone anything worth reading. Not that the following will be one of my best posts, but I do want to get back on the writing saddle, and there's no better way to do it than taking advantage of the date and look back a bit at the year that was. 2014 was, in every aspect I can think of, much, much better than 2013. It was a fairly good year, I'd say, and I hope 2015 will be at least as good. Publishing The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer was fun. Shortcomings notwithstanding, it was mostly well received and writing it together with Alan was a great experience. We had some more plans for it, but my workload made it impossible to give the necessary attention. But let's talk about beer. Most remarkable Czech beers of 2014 On tap: I could go for Únětická 10°, not only it's a great beer, but drinking it at my village's pub after a hard da

Do not attempt to read this post without having read Part 1 and Part 2 , or you will not understand a fucking thing. Nature called way too early the following morning. The bloody cunt couldn't have waited another hour, could she? After attending the call (and opening the windows, I hope the cleaning lady was provided with a gas mask), I tried to go back to sleep, without success. I wouldn't say I had a hangover proper, I felt rather as if my stomach was still trying to figure out what to do with the previous night's dinner. It was still too early to go down for breakfast, not that I was hungry, actually. I turned on the telly to help me pass the time, but without expecting much, and can't say I was disappointed. I don't think German TV is a lot of fun even when you understand the language, so you can imagine what it is like when you don't. But I found CNN, and it made me wish I didn't understand English. Their coverage of the missing Malaysian plane

You should read the first part before this one. I'm not joking. With jolly bellies, we left Schneider-Weisse and headed headed to Essing, enjoying the gorgeous Bavarian countryside as we cruised along. Essing is a pretty, small village, most of which can't be more than a couple hundred metres across, as it's crammed between a creek and a (limestone perhaps?) cliff. The day was on full spring when we parked in front of the Brauereigasthof Schneider and we went straight to the deck in the back of the building. An idyllic setting, really. I picked the Bock of the house, which was a bit too thin flavoured for my taste, but I didn't care, I was like a pig in shit. While we were sipping our beers and chatting, Líbor went to get something from the car and when he came back, he said he had bumped into the owner and brew master of Schneider Brauerei , who had agreed to show us around his brewery. It has absolutely nothing to do with the one with had left about an

The story of how I joined Líbor, the owner of Kulový Blesk and importer of Schneider-Weisse and Au-Hallertau , and Štěpán and Mírek, director and business rep. of Únětický Pivovar respectively, starts last year in September. My wife had taken the weekend off, leaving me with our daughter. What is a responsible parent supposed to do to entertain a very energetic 4 y.o. child? Well, go to a bloody brewery, of course! So we took the bus to Únětice, my daughter jumping with joy. There were visitors that day at Únětický Pivovar: the owner, the director and the brewers of Schlossbrauerei Au-Hallertau , who had come with a barrel of their Weissbier. The pub was pretty full when we arrived and we were invited to seat at the table with the Bavarians, who turned out to be really cool people, and with Líbor, who, it should be said, is a top bloke. We had a great afternoon, the “Auers” invited me to visit their brewery and I told Líbor I would him in Spring in one of his regular trips t