Story of Czechvar

Czechvar - coming to you from the heart of Europe

In the very heart of Europe, there is a country that has played an important role several times in world history. A country whose tradition dates back centuries, which was the birthplace of great rulers and scholars, and which even now has presented to the world such personalities as President Vaclav Havel, the hockey player Jaromír Jagr, film director Milos Forman, goalkeeper Dominik Hasek, tennis player Ivan Lendl and others. It is also a country that has become famous through centuries for its beer in the same manner as France has become famous for its wine, Switzerland for its cheese, and Russia for its vodka. This country is the Czech Republic, also known as the "heart of Europe".

Good beer has been brewed in Bohemia since time immemorial. Therefore, when founding the city Ceske Budejovice in 1265 on the conjunction of the rivers Vltava and Malse, the Czech king Premysl Otakar II did not fail to grant to its burghers, among other privileges, also the brewing rights, i.e., the right for malting, brewing, storing and selling beer at their homes. In the following centuries, the local beer became so famous due to its quality that it gained loyal customers in imperial and royal courts. The Czech king who later became the emperor Ferdinand I. awarded the local city council in the years 1532 and 1547 special praise for their delicious beer and then ordered the council to send its brewer with laborers to the emperor’s court in Augsburg to brew beer for the emperor’s table. In the end of the 19th century, the emperor’s court in Klagenfurt also used to order beer from the brewery in Ceske Budejovice. The beer from Ceske Budejovice enjoys royal attention even now and has won the praise of the Swedish king and of the Prince of Wales.

In the course of the centuries, small home breweries were disappearing and the beer was brewed in even larger facilities, until there remained only one brewery in the city, which was operated by local holders of brewing rights. Due to the enormous growth of beer production in the Czech lands in the last third of the 19th century, a part of primarily Czech holders of brewing rights decided to found their own brewery. On 15 April 1895, they founded Český akciový pivovar, whose current successor, B.B.N.P., carries on the local brewing tradition.

Beer production in the new brewery started on 7 October 1895. By the next September, the brewery produced its first 51,100 hectoliters of beer, which has successfully preserved, throughout the 19th and the 20th century and until the present time, all its excellent traditional taste and properties. All of this quality is coming to you now with the beer named Czechvar. The name Czechvar is a combination of two words – „Czech“ and „pivovar“ (in English "brewery"). It is a symbolic name of a beer coming to you from the Czech lands, from a city famous for its beer.

The beer "Czechvar" is distinguished by its fine, delicious, slightly sweetish taste, with pleasant hop scent and bitterness. Its taste represents a perfect harmony from the specific flavor of Moravian malt, fine Saaz hops from northern Bohemia and the high-quality, crystal clear water. The water is drawn via 300meter deep artesian wells from a 10,000 year-old Ice Age lake, located under our brewery. Pristine pure this water helps give Czechvar its delicious taste. The unique properties of the basic materials are enhanced in B.B.N.P., which is nowadays one of the most dynamically growing Czech firms, by the long tradition from generations of brewers who have raised this beer to its current form. The result of all the above is the top-quality taste, balanced to an extent that invite you for another draft. Brewers call this "drinkability". This property is also one of the major virtues of the beer produced by this brewery, which has never sacrificed quality to short-term business goals.

Due to the popularity of beer from Ceske Budejovice, which was tested for centuries by the lovers of this beverage, this beer started to be imitated in the end of the 19th century in the New World, as the American continent used to be called at that time. The best evidence of those activities can be found in the national archives of the U.S.A., which have been preserved records of a lawsuit between two American breweries. Both breweries were trying to win exclusive right to use the name for its products. Therefore, they argued whose beer is the closest to the beer from Ceske Budejovice in Czech Republic, formerly Bohemia.

At home, the popularity of beer manufactured by B.B.N.P. among customers grows in proportion to its expanding position. For many years, B.B.N.P.’s beers have been favored by consumers in fifty countries of four continents, mostly in Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Slovakia and Italy. No wonder that the beer manufactured by B.B.N.P. has achieved, in the long run, one of the largest sales volume abroad of any Czech brewery, having a one-fifth share in Czech beer exports.

Each new success is a pleasure, and lager beer produced by B.B.N.P. may be proud of successes achieved throughout its existence. The first award was granted to it by a professional jury of the Prague Industrial Exhibition, i.e., as soon as one year after its formation. Since then, new trophies have been pouring continuously into its fictitious Hall of Fame. A prominent place among the most recent ones is held by the silver (and the only awarded) medal from the international fair in Osaka (Japan) in 1998, and by two golden and one silver medal from World Quality Selections held in Brussels in 1999. B.B.N.P. also won two golden medals in the same contests held in 2000 and 2001. And not to be short of joy, the light lager may be proud of the award "Beer 2000", granted to it by Czech beer fans. And those fans do understand beer, as the Czech hold the first place in the world in per capita consumption of beer. In 2006, Czechvar Lager was awarded a silver medal in Seattle (Brewers Association (BA) World Beer Cup 2006).

The brewers, whose tradition of brewing beer in B.B.N.P. dates back to more than a century, say that they have never wanted people to drink too much beer, but are happy when many people drink their beer with moderation, for taste and joy.

Throughout the year, Ceske Budejovice is a city of beer. During the daytime, new hectoliters of the beverage are produced there, somewhat hidden in the tumult of everyday life, to be shipped to close and faraway destinations. But if you are lucky to be in the metropolis of Budějovice region, enjoy its hospitality and discover your own Ceske Budejovice. Discover the home of the Czechvar beer. When visiting the historical center of the city, you may visit the temple of good beer lovers - the restaurant „Masné krámy“ or the hotel "Malý pivovar" with its famous beer parlor. You may find a similar parlor directly in the brewery. Come and sit in one of dozens of pubs and enjoy the delicious taste of Czechvar. Whoever you are, you may be sure at all times that you are drinking the original product.