Pivo and Me

Ah, Prague. Praha. City of a Hundred Spires. The Golden City. The Left Bank of the Nineties. The Mother of Cities. The Heart of Europe. Prague has many names, but I think it needs one more: Pivo Prague, Capital of Beer Bohemia.

Prague is a beer city. If the national drink of American is coffee, and the national drink of France is wine, Czechia's national drink is undoubtedly beer. Or pivo, in the Czech. Czechia has the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world. More than the UK. More than Germany. Think about that for a moment. Czechia drinks about 35% more beer per captia than any other nation. The measure isn't even close: on an average day in the Czech Republic, a 12+ ounces of beer are consumed for every man, woman, and child. And yes, at pretty much every place you can get them both, beer is literally cheaper than water.*

Brewing in Czechia dates back well over a thousand years, with major bewing centers being the towns of Budweis (note the name), Pilzen (and that one) and Praha itself. In the late 1800s, when the American company Anheiser-Busch wanted to create a new beer the owner reached back to his memory of famous German-speaking beer towns and named his beer Budweiser. The original Czech Budweiser firm and the American upstart have been been in legal battles for decades. Around the same time, in Pilzen, brewers invented the world's first lighter beer. Soon, "pilsners" were all the rage, and Pilsner Urquell become a global brand.

This is very, very much a beer culture. I distinguish this from a "drinking culture" because Czech beer drinking isn't about partying all night and dancing on tables. There are several demographic groups, especially here in Prague, that do have drinking cultures**, but the Czech national love of beer is about socializing and chatting, with most local pubs closing well before the loud bars catering to expats.

Still, whatever the occasion, whatever the variety, and whatever the quantity, I don't like beer. I don't drink at all, which makes my dislike less noticeable, but I still kind of stick out when 15 people order beer*** and I order a Coke. No-one's running me out of town on a rail...yet. But my dislike does make me feel isolated from this quitessential part of Czech culture, because, well, I am isolated. I am literally missing out on this experience. In my attempt to live like a local, on this count, I get a zero.

Oh well, at least I love potatoes.

*The guy in this video strikes me as a douche. Also, one reason for the disparity in prices is that politicans who even think about taxing beer prices lose their jobs pretty quickly.

**In an effort to crack down somewhat on those drinking cultures, Prague is moving to ban public drinking and open containers in Praha 1--the heart of the city and the top tourist spot. Currently, drinking on the street is legal in most of Prague, most of the time. There are exceptions, but generally, it's legal. Now, the tourist/expat scene has gotten too big and too rowdy, so they're starting to crack down.

***Prague is the first place I have been to where, as if in a movie, you can order a "beer," and the waiter brings you one. Places often have a house beer, and if you order "Pivo, prosim," no further questions are asked. This also means people frequently have no idea what they're drinking.


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