Hops, malt and barley: A beer tour of the Czech Republic

The Star

11-05-2025

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy Czech beer near where you live, you are likely to be drinking one of the more well-known export brands. However, the country is home to more than 400 breweries – from micro to massive.
Many of them, with their unfiltered and naturally cloudy beers, are aimed at the discerning connoisseur. The range of drinks and local stories are waiting to be discovered on a trip through the country.
Most breweries have long since adapted to welcoming visitors to boost their income. There are also often year-round tours that you can book in advance.
Wherever you go, you'll meet locals proud of their respective regions and their different brewing traditions.
Here are several breweries in the Czech Republic worth making a trip for:
Hulvat microbrewery: A tradition of homebrewing
For the founders of the Hulvat microbrewery, it all started in their kitchen at home. But when demand from friends for their home-brewed beer grew, their small brewing kettle was no longer big enough.
The idea of founding a microbrewery was quickly born.
'It started out as a hobby – and now it's a pretty big hobby,' Marek Bastl says. The financial advisor teamed up with brothers Petr and Jan Zahorka, who freed up some space on their farm. The three of them continued with their day jobs, and have hired two other employees.
The brewery is located in the South Bohemian village of Truskovice, just under 30km north-west of Ceske Budejovice (Budweis in German).
Architecture fans will love the vernacular buildings in the rural Baroque style.
The Zeliv Monastery has a hotel next to the brewery where you can take a soothing beer bath in the wellness area.
Beer lovers can expect natural, unpastuerised and unfiltered lager beers, made from Czech ingredients.
The name of the brewery is reminiscent of its wild beginnings, far removed from any commercial aspirations (in Czech, a 'hulvat' is a ruffian who might have had too much to drink).
The brewery likes to experiment, which is underlined by the 'hemp beer' developed together with a university.
Zeliv monastery: Beer bathing and Bock beer
While the Hulvat microbrewery was founded in 2018, the Zeliv monastery has a centuries- old tradition of brewing beer. 'It's a monastery that's still active today and is currently home to seven monks,' says tour guide David.
Another 30 monks are in charge of the surrounding parishes. The silence and tranquillity is a plus for guests at the monastery hotel. There are also modern amenities such as a wellness area with a beer spa.
The small but modern brewery is accessed via a staircase to the basement. They are particularly proud of their speciality beers.
Seasonal specialities such as the Bavarian wheat Bock or the Christmas Bock beer with 8.2% alcohol bring some variety to the lineup.
A traditional Czech lager is always part of the offering.
Brewery Bernard: A visitor centre with a lookout tower
From the Zeliv monastery, it's 12km to the Bernard Family Brewery in Humpolec. Their dark beer was named the best in its category at the 2024 World Beer Awards in London.
The brewery complex is located in the centre of the small town. So instead of growing in area, the company has grown in height instead. 'We use every bit of space we have,' they say on a tour of the site. Instead of a classic cellar, there is a hall with a refrigeration system.
Although the company now has 260 employees, everyone knows everyone, the guide says. There are whole families who work in the brewery.
A new visitor centre opened two years ago, with a new spiral staircase wrapped around the distinctive chimney, which is still in use. The 189 steps lead visitors to a viewing platform.
A house speciality are the non- alcoholic beers with the name Bernard with a clear head and flavours such as plum and cherry.
Budweiser Budvar: Cooperation with micro-breweries
Next to these medium-sized companies, the Czech state-owned brewery Budejovicky Budvar is like a giant spaceship. The fourth largest producer of beer in the Czech Republic, they are now also working with a number of microbreweries.
The result is limited edition beers like Do You Drink German?, which is like a 'modern kolsch beer'. Summer Affair, Black Jack and Echt IPA are all already sold out.
Even before you enter the brewery in Ceske Budejovice, you can smell the hops and malt in the air. There is a small exhibition documenting the city's long history of beer brewing, and an artesian well, where the soft water bubbles up from a depth of 300m.
In the boiler house it's cosy and warm, but from there you go to the frosty storage cellar.
At the end of the tour you can enjoy a freshly tapped beer from the storage tank, something that only brewers are normally allowed to do.
The company became known worldwide for its decade-long trademark dispute with its American competitor Anheuser-Busch over the naming rights to Budweiser beer. Budweiser Budvar is therefore imported as 'Czechvar' in the United States.
Over the next few years, the Czechs want to invest significant sums in a new visitor centre with a restaurant, a car park and cycle path access.
The aim is to increase the number of visitors from around 60,000 to 200,000 annually. – MICHAEL HEITMANN/dpa