Pivovar Kout na Šumavě

WFMU Podcast: interview in English and Czech with Kout's owner

  Kout podcast (non-Flash)
 
The Kout Brewery, or Pivovar Kout na Šumavě, is located in the south-western corner of the Czech Replublic, an area well known for launching the Pilsner style in 1842. The influence of the creation of Pilsner continues to drive the beer world, with Pilsner style light lagers dominating breweries the world over.

The first written record of beer being brewed by Kout was in 1736, though it's thought that the brewery originates from at least 100 years earlier. From its official founding Kout was run by the Stadion family, then in 1924 it passed to the Schönborn family. The brewery was nationalized by the communist government after WWII and was operated by Pilsner Urquell. It ceased operations in 1969, but before it closed, Kout's current owner, Mr. Jan Skala, worked summer jobs as a teenager at the brewery in 1967-68. From that point forward the brewery and the beer would be forever in his heart.
In 2002 Mr. Skala learned that the idle brewery was for sale and set out to acquire it with the intention of restoring Kout to its former glory and resurrecting its unique version of classic, traditional Czech beer. In 2006 the brewery was once again up and running! Incredibly, one of the former brewers of Kout, Mr. Bohuslav Hlavsa who was brewing there in 1969, was found and retained to bring Kout's beers back to life. After Kout closed in '69, Mr. Hlavsa continued brewing at the nearby Domazlice Brewery.

Adrian and Mr. Skala of Kout with Jimmy Carbone.

Kout strictly adheres to a traditional Czech recipe and technique from over 200 years ago. They get their brewing water from a "secret well", according to Mr. Skala, and use only Czech Pilsner malts, some specialty malts from Germany, and Czech grown Saaz hops. All the beers are double-decoction mashed, except for Kout 12° which uses triple-decoction. The beers undergo open primary fermentation -- a distinct rarity in modern brewing -- using the same yeast strain as České Budějovice (Budvar), and then are carefully lagered. The Koutská 10° blonde beer (4% ABV) is aged for about 5 weeks, while their Koutský tmavý speciál 18° (9% ABV) is aged for up to 5 months! The beers are kegged, unpasturized and unfiltered.

Mr. Jan Skala.

This summer Kout 10°, 12° and 18° are being brought into the USA for the first time on a very limited basis, available only in kegs.

Koutská 10° Pilsner (4% ABV) lagered for 5 weeksKoutská 12° Blonde lager (5% ABV) lagered for 3 months
Koutská 14° Schwartzbier  (6% ABV) lagered for 4 months
Koutský 18° Dopplebock (9% ABV) lagered for 5 months
   

Kout Brewery.

The 18° Spuyten Duyvil.

L-R: B.R., Paul of Ale Street News, Joe of Spuyten, Alexander of Andechs, Sebastian of Freigeist.

  Kout podcast

Hospoda Czech Pub/Bistro

 

Considering what a huge fan I am of Budvar, Staropramen, and, of course Pilsner Urquell, I can't believe that it's taken me a year to check out Hospoda (Czech for "pub"), the Czech bar/bistro located in the Upper East Side -- in the same building as the Consulate General of the Czech Republic. My Czech hockey coaching pal Mike has been trying to get me there since the place opened in fall of 2011, touting the various types of pours served and the extreme freshness of the Pilsner there. I thought, "Meh -- I've had Urquell. It's good. How could it be that much, if any, better at this place?"

Finally, chance would place us in the pub's neighborhood. As we entered Mike greeted the reputed master tapman Lukas, who's in charge of the famed pours at Hospoda. We sat at a long, narrow communal table and a waitress came to us with small sample glasses filled with mostly Pilsner Urquell foam. She explained the four different pours offered and what differentiated them -- from the creamiest all-foam pour to the sharp tasting headless mug.

A glass floor reveals the cold room storing kegs.

As I put glass to mouth and got my first taste of Hospoda's Pilsner Urquell, I had a genuine flashback to the very first time that I tasted fresh Czech pilsner. I was 18 years old, in West Berlin and I had ordered a Budweiser Budvar on draught. It was like no other beer that I had ever tasted. And since then, I've had more Czech pilsners than I can recall, often at the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Queens. And you'd think that they'd have good pilsner there, and they do. But not like this -- nothing as bright and fresh and flavorful as the pilsner served at Hospoda.

Descriptions of the various pours on offer.

We'll leave the report there for now, because it's inevitable that B.R. and I will return to Hospoda (in the very near future) for some of that Czech liquid gold, and to find out how the beer there is so much fresher and tastier than what we've experienced elsewhere in the past.

Pilsners At Blind Tiger With Sean of Victory Brewing

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 8/4/2011

PILSNER style lagers are unquestionably the "kings of beers" the world over and have been for the last century. But beer wasn't always bright, clear, crisp and clean. Two changes in the brewing process in the mid-1800s made pilsners possible: lighter malts, pioneered by English maltsters who began malting barley with indirect heat, and bottom fermenting yeast that worked at colder temperatures.

The result, when brewed with German and Bohemian noble hops such as Tettnang and Saaz, and with the soft water found in Plzen, is a beer that is clean, clear, with an extremely light golden color, and which is the definition of "refreshing". Prior to the advent of the pilsner/pils/helles style, you can imagine that most beers would be dark, roasty and yeasty. But the cleanly fermenting lager yeast and the process of lagering -- fermenting and aging the beer in cold caves -- changed all that.

How and why was this beer revolution begun? According to the PILSNER-URQUELL brewery, in 1838 the Burghers of the city of Plzen dumped out 36 barrels of beer down the drain in protest of the poor quality and inconsistency of the beer at the time. In 1839 they formed a municipal brewery for the purpose of correcting the situation, and by 1842, with the help of German brewer Josef Groll, pilsner beer was born.

You can find lots more on pilsner history at the websites of Pilsner-Urquell, Wikipedia, Budweiser Budvar and others.

As part of their monthly series, this Wednesday Blind Tiger loaded up their taps with 12 special pilsner beers. One of our favorites, VICTORY BREWING's BRAUMEISTER PILS was one of them, and Sean, the brewery's "king of New York and Connecticut" was on hand to talk to us about it.

We didn't try all twelve, but from the seven that we did try it was clear that there's quite a wide range of interpretations of the most popular style of suds on earth. The Victory Braumeister Pils is an unfiltered American pilsner (available only on draft), with a more assertive hop character than most European versions -- a big hop aroma and bitterness along with full bodied maltiness -- and delicious! Though similar to the Victory PRIMA PILS, which can be found in bottles and on draft, it is, in the words of King Sean, more of a Kellerbier.

 
The Victory brew had more in common with the MAHR'S PILSNER, also a sumptuous unfiltered lager, though from Bamberg, Germany. Quite on the other end of the spectrum was the MIKKELLER DREAM PILS (aka American Dream) from Denmark, which had even more hop flavor, aroma and bitterness than the Victory, and a slightly deeper copper color than all, though crystal clear. It also had a nice malt sweetness.


CHRISTOFFEL BLONDE from the Netherlands had a softer profile, very light straw color and a slightly sweet malt flavor, with a bit of a haze -- it's one of those rare unfiltered pilsner varieties. Another malt-centric lager that we tried was the SCHLENKERLA HELLES. This one was together quite different from all the others, with it's subdued smoke-malt flavor and aroma -- well, subdued when compared to the full-on Rauchbiers of Bamberg! I love all the Schlenkerla beers and, frankly, all the rauchbiers of Bamberg that I've tasted, and it's amazing to taste a pilsner beer in this traditional rauchbier style. This one gets special honors for achieving uniqueness, enjoyability AND the oft hard to nail subtlety.



And the always tasty KULMBACHER EDELHERB PILS was on tap, which is considered a quintessential example of the German Pils style. Classic.

BLIND TIGER has beer events pretty much every Wednesday often featuring a particular brewery's beers, but the first Wednesday of the month generally reserved for featuring a particular beer style, rather than one exclusive brewery.

BONUS PODCAST! A loud, noisy bar recording of some tasting comments by B.R., Bob and Alan Rice!