Czech beer, Bohemian lager at its brewery, its pub and its tank.

In the Czech Republic beer is what the house wine is in Spain: what you order without thinking, what reaches the table before the menu. More is drunk per person than in any other country, almost always pale, bottom-fermented lager, and a good part of the world drinks it today without knowing, because the style we call pilsner was born in Plzeň in 1842. This route brings together the Geocalia places where that history can be seen up close: Prague, Plzeň, Hluboká and České Budějovice, Litoměřice and Tábor.

Pale, from the tank and with a head: how it is drunk in Bohemia

What sets Czech beer apart is less the style than the treatment. It is served very fresh, often tank beer, that is, unpasteurised, brought to the pub in tankers and kept in tanks in the cellar, and with a dense head that is considered part of the beer here. On menus you will see the degrees on the label (10°, 12°), which are not alcohol but wort density: the 12° is the full lager, the 10° the light one for drinking many.

There are variations in plain sight: the 13° dark beer that U Fleků has made in Prague for more than five centuries, the unfiltered beers of the small breweries with restaurants, which in Czech are called minipivovar, and the custom that the waiter leaves the next mug as soon as the previous one is about to run out. If you do not want more, you put the beer mat on top of the glass.

Breweries that open their cellars

In Plzeň, the Pilsner Urquell tour lasts 100 minutes, costs 430 CZK and covers the brew house and the cellars, where you are served a 0.3 l glass of unfiltered, unpasteurised beer, only to over-18s. Down there it is about 5 °C: bring a coat. There is an app in Spanish. In the old town, the Brewing Museum, in a brewers' house, costs 150 CZK and takes an hour, and the tunnels beneath the town complete the day.

In České Budějovice, the Budweiser Budvar brewery is visited in 70 or 80 minutes for 290 CZK, with the brew house, the maturation cellars and a tasting of the tank beer, also only for over-18s. For independent visitors, the English tour is at 14:40 all year, and in July and August also at 10:40; groups have tours in seven languages, Spanish included. Places are few: book.

In Prague, U Fleků shows its brewery museum Monday to Saturday, by reservation only, and U Medvídků runs tours with a tasting of its microbrewery on dates that you request by email.

Pubs you have to visit

In Prague, U Zlatého tygra, on Husova street, was Bohumil Hrabal's pub: draught Pilsner Urquell, tables of regulars and opening at 15:00. U Fleků has eight halls, a garden and a single beer, its dark one. Lokál Dlouhááá, long and noisy, serves tank beer and Czech cooking all day, and U Medvídků serves draught Budvar with a hotel on the upper floors.

Outside the capital, in Plzeň, Na Spilce is inside the brewery grounds, with the house unfiltered beer. In Budějovice, Masné krámy, the great Budvar brewery restaurant since 1954, occupies the old butchers' stalls. In Litoměřice, the Biskupský pivovar has tables with their own tap, and in Tábor the Restaurace Beseda serves the Lichvice that the catering school makes in its cellar.

To sleep among the kettles: the Hotel Purkmistr, on the outskirts of Plzeň, has its own brewery and beer baths; the Biskupský pivovar has rooms above the brewery, and in Prague the U Medvídků hotel leaves you a flight of stairs from the last mug.

October in Plzeň and November at the table

The breweries are open all year. The big festival is the Pilsner Fest, in the grounds of the Plzeň brewery, in early October, when the first brew of 1842 is celebrated: in 2026 it ran from 5 to 10 October, with free entry. In summer, the beer gardens of Prague and of the provincial breweries fill up until late, and U Medvídků opens its garden from late April to early October. In November, around St Martin's, roast goose appears on menus, such as the one at the Biskupský pivovar. Budvar closes from 24 to 26 December and on 1 January.

Trains and buses from Prague

This whole route can be done without driving, and that is the sensible thing with so much beer. Plzeň is an hour and a half by train from Praha hlavní nádraží, with the brewery ten minutes' walk from the station. Tábor is an hour and a half along the České Budějovice line, which is reached in a little over two hours; from there to Hluboká there is a regional train or bus. Litoměřice is reached by bus from Nádraží Holešovice, in about an hour. Between Plzeň and České Budějovice there is a direct train, so you can link the two breweries without going back to Prague, as in the two-night Pilsner to Budvar getaway.

Getting back is just as easy: the train drops you in the centre of Prague, and in the city the pubs are within walking distance of each other, with metro and tram at night. For a whole night on foot, see the pub route through the Old Town.