I know this goes against the grain of this blog, which is supposed to be about German beer. Recently, however, I have run into a bit of a snag in finding my preferred German brands at Total Wines and More. Of all the German beers I have written about on this site, my favorites have been the Hoppebrau microbrewery of Bavaria and the products produced by the Eibau brewery by the Polish border especially the bock (Das Bock) beer. Most of the rest of what Total Wines and More offer are the well-known Bavarian brands in 6 packs.
So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give the Czech brands a try, particularly the ones that come in single .5 liter bottles. In past years, I found that the Czech imports had been disappointing, especially since my visit to Prague in the 1980s, when I came to the conclusion, that after German beer, Czech beer was the best. Now it seems that the Czech beers have caught on and improved their exports as the Germans have done. I must say that I am very pleased with what I have tried thus far.
Here they are:
Samson dark lager ($3.99 a bottle) They also have an original lager and a Czech lager, which I assume are light in color. (I have only seen the dark lager at my store.)
Lobkowicz Golden Lager -$2.99 a bottle
Rychtar Lager
Platan Lager $2.99 a bottle.
The bottles are all .5 liter sizes and range from 4.5% to 5.2% alcohol content.
I should also mention that the store also carries some of the larger Czech brands like Pilsner Urquell, Czechvar, Staropramen, and Praga in 6 packs or cans, which I think I will also try.
*Update: Rather than post a new article on Czech beer (This is a German beer site), I will just update this one to advise that I have picked up some Pilsner Urquell, Praga, and Czechvar in order to compare them with the above beers. While I found them to be OK, I still prefer the above, lesser-known brands in the .5 liter bottles. As always, that's just my personal taste.
