“A piece of happiness? Perhaps, but mainly top-notch quality, without which no happiness would help,” stated the president of the First Beer Extraliga, Ladislav Jakl. The Extraliga method is indeed unique among beer competitions: you cannot buy participation in the test. Samples are collected from all Prague breweries where this can be done. The samples are strictly anonymous and purchased just as a random customer would receive them – that is, from the fridge in a PET bottle, a can, or from the tap into a brought PET bottle.
The conditions are completely equal: “We consistently have around 6 types of beers of various styles on tap and in bottles. We respond to beer trends, but both of our lagers are a constant that the guest will always find, regardless of the path the beer world and the taste of the primarily younger generation may take. In the Extraliga, samples are not evaluated in a laboratory fine-tuned for the competition. The jury is interested in exactly the kind of beer that the given brewery offers to its guest. And that is precisely why we greatly value the repeated victory of 12 pilots,” said Petr Voborský, co-owner of Kbelský Brewery.
The King of Prague is annually the most logistically demanding tasting of the First Beer Extraliga. Currently, there are about 52 small breweries operating in Prague. More than forty of them produce Czech lager, the only comparable category in which Prague microbreweries can compete with each other. In several breweries, Czech lager is not produced, and in some places, it is simply refused to be served across the street.
The result is a tasting in which the judging committee tastes and ranks the samples in the now legendary establishment First Beer Tramway. This year, Prostě lager from BadFlash Brewery ranked behind Kbelský beer, while the third shared place was taken by the new Fuze Brewery and Horymír from Radotín. The fifth place is held by the brewery Spojovna with its lager, and sixth place was secured by Suchdolský Jeník.
