New hophouse for Czech brewer
warehouse, a facility which it claims is unique in Europe.
Budweiser Budvar, the state-owned Czech brewer, last Friday opened a new 180-ton hop warehouse at its main brewing site in Ceske Budejovice, a facility which it claims is unique in Europe.
Budvar, which also claims to be the only Czech brewery which still brews beer from purely natural hops, said that the warehouse had been made from a refurbished malt house which was 107 years old at at caost of CZK 6 million.
The warehouse is the brainchild of Budvar's head brewer, Josef Tolar, who has always stressed the importance of using only the finest hops in the Czech beer.
"Hops are to beer what grapes are to wine," he said "and the quality of hops has a tremendous impact on our beer's general taste." This is why Budweiser Budvar brews only with selected Czech Saaz hops, grown in the Zatec region, he added.
The new facility will now allow Budweiser Budvar to maintain its hops at a stable five degrees Centigrade and prevent the flow of air over the hops - something which can also affect the quality.
"Changing the hop variety or replacing the use of hops with a hop extract would have a profound and deleterious impact on the properties of our Budvar beer and we shall never do it," Tolar said. Budvar would stick to its traditional brewing methods, but would harness any new technology that could enhance the quality of the brew, he added.
