Ready for Today’s Lesson?

Welcome class! We will be giving you some in-depth Lessons in Lager today! More specifically, we’re talking about the amazing Czech Pilsner since we just released a version of our own. We also recently brought back our side pour faucet to give you the silkiest lagers in the land. In this edition of BlogDBB we’re going to walk you through why it’s important to keep traditions alive. We’ll give a brief history of Czech brewing, as well as discussing the side pour basics. Finally, we want to dote on the Czech Pils we just dropped. Everyone please open your books to the first chapter because school is officially in session!

Tradition is Important

We have stated this numerous times, but honoring and keeping tradition is extremely important to us here at Divine Barrel Brewing. It is so much fun to be able to get wild and experiment with some of our beers, but there’s also a time and place to honor the brewers who’ve come long before us. Being able to brew beers like a Czech Pils, and then serve it from a side pour faucet, which is a Czech invention, is as exciting as nailing the flavors on a Carolina Cobbler. We feel a sense of personal responsibility to keep showing folks that clean and traditional beers can be every bit as good as some of the newer, crazier styles that have come about in the last several years. It’s also important to us to continue educating. Understanding where a beer came from, distinguishing nuances between similar styles, how beer can be served; these are all topics newer drinkers may not understand, but learning to understand these things can make a world of difference in how you even perceive a beer! Are you ready to receive your PhD in Lagers yet?

Czech Brewing History

The Lager-brewing legends in the Czech Republic have been mastering their craft since as early as 993, where records show monasteries handled much of the brewing until the 13th century. As you can imagine, Lager is what’s brewed most in this stunningly beautiful central European country. Pilsner Urquell, is credited with creating the world’s first Pilsner. Czechs are also quite a thirsty bunch! They have earned the title of highest consumption per capita of any country in the world… now that’s a lot of Lager for such a small country! These innovative drinking geniuses also are credited with creating the side pour faucet, which is a method for serving Lager, very much different from the way you’re used to seeing beer poured. After developing this technology, much of central Europe and Germany adopted this method of serving Lager too, and it’s caught on more recently here in America! We’ll now break down what exactly a side pour is.

Come Try A Side Pour

Do any of you enjoy the delightful taste of a crisp, smooth, clean lager like we do? Side pour faucets are the perfect vehicle to help accentuate these features in Lagers! Check out the photo above because you’ll see this unique faucet looks nothing like the ones used here in America. The wonderful thing about these are that they allow us to control the amount of liquid going into the glass. By controlling the flow of beer, and a special screen inside the faucet, it knocks some of the CO2 out of suspension, thus creating a thick, creamy, protective foam head that endures throughout the beer. If you weren’t aware, a foam head is extremely important for a beer. It’s primary purpose is to protect the beer from oxidation, which can lead to off flavors. This technique is also known to be a bit more time consuming due to slowly building up the foam head while simultaneously bringing out the cleaner and crisper aspects of Lager. If you see us sticking the faucet in the beer, don’t be alarmed. This is how you serve a proper side pour. There are three kinds of pours as well, but there’s no way I can explain them better than the folks at Pilsner Urquell can, so check out the video. Yes, we do offer the Milk Pour as well! It’s unique, fun and the perfect way to end a drinking session!

Let’s Czech on Our Own Pils

We know we say we’re proud of a lot of our beers, and that’s because we are! Our version of Czech Pils is maybe the proudest we’ve ever been of any Lager we’ve produced. It’s definitely right up there with our Schwarzbier, When Will Then Be Now? Executing a tasty Lager is no easy business, folks. Unlike a hazy IPA, heavily fruited sour, or pastry stout, there’s nothing to hide the impurities in a Lager. It’s as naked as a beer can get. With this Czech Pils we just released in 4-packs, it’s literally everything we want in the style. It is slightly sweet with faint notes of biscuit, a pleasant floral hop aroma, restrained bitterness for balance, and a perfect carb that dances on your palate with each sip. We hope you’ll consider coming to visit our taproom in NoDa. Come enjoy a beautiful side pour out of our new Czech mugs, and then grab a 4-pack to take home! You can also order some ahead of your visit to our brewery by visiting our web shop. Well class, we are just about out of time for this session of Lessons in Lager. We hope you’ll follow along our social media for our new video series dropping soon with the same name, which will feature Head Brewer & Co-Owner, Ben Dolphens, and me, James Amato, the Marketing & Social Media Manager.

Spotify Playlist

This blog edition’s playlist is a really fun one. We compiled a list of every beer we’ve ever released with a name referencing a song. We jam-packed this playlist with all of those songs. Can you match the songs to the beers? Check it out, friends!

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST