[ Beer Culture ]

There’s not enough cross-border information exchange in these parts; among other elements, that’s a big part of this weblog’s raison d’être. In other words, people in the Czech Republic know about Czech beer, Germans know about German beer, Poles know about Polish beer, and yet no one really knows what’s going on on the other side of the nearest frontier. And yet we share the same Central European brewing traditions, which transcend languages, boundaries and nations.

In just that regard, there are some interesting new developments coming down the pipe and out the tap. Above is a quick snap of the V3 Smoked Malt Special, brewed by Pivovar Kocour Varnsdorf in conjunction with Slovakia’s Kaltenecker and Hungary’s Serforrás in Miskolc, said by the venerable chew.hu to brew the best beer in Hungary. These represent three of the four Visegrad Countries, hence the idea of a “Visegrad beer triangle,” or V3, mentioned by Honza Kočka in the comments here a while back.

I’ll have more on the V3 a bit later, but for now it’s important to note that it’s a malty, sweet and just slightly smoky lager brewed at 14.5°, more like Brauerei Spezial’s version of a smoked Märzen than one from Schlenkerla, with a honey-hay nose and smoky-sour finish. Most importantly, I wanted to point out that it’s available at Pivovarský klub right this minute.

Go get it.

After the big breakup known as the Velvet Divorce, Slovak beers were rarely seen in this half of the former Czechoslovakia, and the old Czech prime minister once commented that Slovak brews weren’t even fit for cleaning teeth. So it seems meaningful that Slovak beers have started appearing in Prague recently, from Kaltenecker’s ginger and dark lagers at the Christmas Beer Markets to the bottles of Steiger popping up at Pivovarský klub.

These bottles, however, are not intended for Slovakia’s former federal partners here in the Czech Republic, but instead are designed to entice customers in the German-speaking markets. (Yes, that is a scratch-off bra and panties covering the model on Steiger’s “Premium Helles,” or světlý ležák to you and me. Lest you think that they’re playing upon Slavic stereotypes, not all of the labels feature blondes — there’s at least one redhead.)

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In Central Europe, Slovakia is known for its wine rather than its beers, so one of the cool surprises at Prague’s Christmas Beer Markets was the appearance by Pivovar Kaltenecker, a brewery way out in Rožňava. When I visited Kaltenecker’s kiosk at the markets, I ordered a glass of their Kras ginger-honey lager. Even more surprising than the sudden appearance of a Slovak beer in the Czech capital: I didn’t like it much at all.

Okay, so maybe this wasn’t so surprising. In the Czech Republic, I had trouble getting into the ginger lager from Hodonín’s Pivovar Kunc, and Kaltenecker’s version had about the same appeal for me. Beer has obviously been brewed with ginger for a long time, so I understand the historical interest. But perhaps there is a reason why so few real ginger beers are made today.

In any case, the thought of that ginger-honey lager left me slightly skeptical when I later saw Kaltenecker’s Brokát dark lager (above) on draft at Pivovarský klub. Skeptical, but still curious, so I ordered a small glass.

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