Plzen, Home of the Pilsner Beer

As if our 10 day road trip was not enough, since Greg and Nicole were still here, we decided it was best to check one more country off the list and have a few more good beers.  So off to Czech Republic we went!

The town of Plzen is only 1.5 hours from Grafenwohr, so it really wasn't a bad drive.  Plus, as we have already learned, driving through Europe is beautiful.  So Greg, Nicole, and I drove to Plzen to see the town a bit and to go on a brewery tour of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery.

First stop, the brewery.

Jubilee Gate to Pilsner Urquell
Oh, we fancy now!

Jubilee Gate was added to the brewery for its 50th anniversary way back in 1892.  Beyond the gate there is a whole little brew town, or that's how it feels anyways.  Needless to say, it was definitely a great atmosphere.

Nicole and me in front of Jubilee Gate

Pilsner glass and free parking!

The bridge with the new brewery on the left (the glass building)
and the old brewery on the right (the yellow building)

Greg in the beer garden waiting for us to be done in the gift shop

Greg and Nicole in the beer garden

After enjoying the gift shop, beer garden, and just walking around we headed to our tour of the brewery.  This was by far the best brewery tour I have been on (sorry New Belgium).  We started by learning a bit of the history of the brewery, then we got on the Pilsner Urquell bus to head to the bottling plant.

Pilsner Urquell bus

Map of bottling plant

Actual bottling plant
FYI: 60,000 bottles an hour go through this place

After the bottling plant, we went back on the bus to the old malt house.

Nicole in the malt house

Then we watched a really neat video about how the beer is made on about 4 big screens combined together.  We also rode in the largest elevator in Czech to get there.  It was probably the slowest elevator in Czech, but still cool.  Next, we went to the Hall of Fame where we learned a little more about the history.  The original brew master was actually from Bavaria, Germany!  His name is Josef Groll.

The first batch of beer was brewed in this

Then we headed down to the original fermenting cellars which were extremely cold and a bit wet too.  The beer used to sit in large barrels within the tunnels down here to ferment.

One of many tunnels with old barrels

While in the cellar, we had beer from a barrel
that hadn't been filtered yet

The tour was very informative and really fun.  After the tour we took some more pictures and then headed to the brewery's restaurant for lunch.  We had some Bohemian food that was really yummy.

Pilsner Urquell train

The brewery delivers beer once a month to the town of Plzen
on horse drawn carriages with carts like this

Back to liters ;)

After lunch we walked around downtown Plzen for awhile just exploring the area a bit.

We saw some Czech rock climbing

And the Plzen soccer arena

Such a great day

Cathedral of St. Bartholomew

Main Square area of Plzen

Great Synagogue

Plzen, home of the pilsner beer, you are a fun little town!