Beer!, Prague

I think some will be shocked to see this image on my page, no, not because it is beer, I have plenty of those, but because this is a none alcoholic beer of the famous grand: Radegast.
Now, why I has this one here, it is very simple, it was sunny, it was warm, I was planning a long day walking around the city and I thought I better have none alcoholic beer now otherwise I will just stay all day in the pub instead of sightseeing ;-)

Sometimes it takes just a few hundred meters to find a great local place serving perfect beer but for normal prices.
Organise your own cheap pub crawl by avoiding the tourist traps and crazy beer prices by using the great interactive and unique beer price map of Prague on nelso.nl (available in more languages)

In a number of the places on the map you'll be able to find the true bohemian atmosphere, some live music and some great snacks to go with the beer !

Enjoy Prague like the locals do !

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"Damn, that beer is good!," I say to American companions as I lower my glass of Pilsner Urquell. The first sip of beer after 24 hours of travel time is always excellent, isn't it? On the second sip a quizzical expression crosses my face as my brain involuntarily begins to flip through an internal card cataloguing system looking for points of reference. On the third sip my eyes widen, I can feel tears welling, and my mouth hangs agape. "Holy God! This is the best tasting beer I've ever had in my life!" And even as I announce this, I realize it's a gigantic understatement. This is in fact the best tasting liquid I've ever had in my mouth... The divine, the nectar of gods, the drink I've forever been searching for--the ultimate source!
Pilser Urquell ("Plzensky Prazdroj" in Czech) began brewing in 1842 in the town of Pilsen, Czech Republic not very far from Prague. It's the world's original pilsner beer. It's made with unbelievably beautiful water, hops from Saaz, and is a light, golden colour. And they only cost about $2 each?!
I drank four litres chatting with my American friends, trying to contain my enthusiasm for this newfound drink. After I walk them back to the hotel, I search the surrounding block for pubs and find one five doors down from my accommodation's entrance. Fantastic! I park myself on a barstool and proceed to drink four more litres of Pilsner Urquell, making some cool Czech drinking buddies in the process. Little did I know at the time that this would become my template for the following week.
I wake up early the next morning, fully expecting and deserving a full-blown hangover. But there's nothing. Nothing! I have a glass of water, put some eye drops in, and I feel great--hungry for breakfast ready to take on the world!
The next few days are hot and humid, around 30C (90F), and I drink lots of pilsner--indeed, I'm half-hammered most of my vacation. ...And I can't seem to stop. I quickly get into the habit of answering "Pils!," whenever a waiter asks what I'd like to drink.
Honestly, if I lived in this country, the beer would be the ruin of me and my liver. But screw health, ask for "pils," while in Prague! Na Zdravi!

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This place was great! It is near the powder tower and the Obecni Dum (the Municipal House). You go to Hybernská street and then turn right in Dlazena. The place is called Tluslká Koala and it's full of local people and some tourists. Their dark beer taste very good. It has nothing to do with Guiness. The flavor is much lighter and refreshing. Half a litter cost you 34 crowns! Here you can also eat local "tapas" Czech people eat while drinking. My Czech friends recommended me to try pickled sausages and also spicy cheese with oil. I don't remember the names because I didn't have time to try them! next time i hope...

I'm a beer person so to me Prague was the first beer shangri-la I visited. The beers we brew in my country are "tipo Pilsner" (Pilsner type) so the beers in Prague tasted very much like those I grew up around with. It felt like a little like at home.

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There's so many of them. Make sure you try most of them. They're all great. Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen, etc. I can't remember all of 'em (tried too many!) but I remember how to get one... "Jeden pivo prosim" (One beer, please).

Its their beer brewing, and, more importantly, their beer drinking! Czechs consistently consume more beer per capita than any other country in the world...well close...they usually trade off each year with Germany at the #1 and #2 spots.

And they truly believe (and I tend to agree with them) that they brew the best, highest quality, beer in the world. Granted they don't have the variety that you will find in places like Belgium. Czechs prefer to take the belief that doing only 2 or 3 things better than anyone else, is better than doing more things than anyone else.

Hence you have the traditional Bohemian Pilsner (invented in Plzen at the Pilsner Urquell brewery), the amber Pilsner, and the dark Pilsner. Simple, yet enough variety when you consider that they all taste as creamy as a frosty ice cream cone!

Their pride in beer is well deserved, and I would not suggest challenging it...because there are more of them, then you...and they pretty much have a consensus among the people that is quite hard to shake.

The smarter thing to do is simply to order up and enjoy!

If you are going into a traditional pub because, maybe, you have heard or read about its history, or legends, just remember that men generally should order a beer...as opposed to, say, wine or coffee. This is especially true in "U Zlateho Tygra" because of the beer tradition they have there. Women generally have reached the level of equality in the professional world to match most western countries, but the social traditions have held strong, and traditionally in the Czech Republic, the pub is seen as man's domain.