Pivní Filosof - Beer Philosopher

What a year this has been! Quite fun around here. Writing for the magazine Bar&Beer has been very interesting and seeing my name in print is still a great feeling. I don't know how much the magazine's readers have enjoyed my articles, but I did enjoy writing them and also researching for them. Thanks to that, I had perhaps the greatest beer experience of my life . I already have a few topics in my mind for next year that I believe will be quite interesting. But Bar&Beer won't be the only magazine I'll be writing for next year. The other day I submitted my first piece for Pivo-Bier-Ale , a new specialized magazine that should hit the stands some time next month and for which I will write reviews of imported beers. The presence of Pivní Filosof in the media during 2010 was not limited only to paper, it was extended to TV. The reactions to my appearance in Clase Turista were amazing, 3000 visits on one day (1000 after the re-run), loads of messages and commen

There's something that I've been wanting to say here, but until today I never had the excuse: I'm bored of BrewDog's marketing gimmicks. That "strongest beer in the world" stuff was just childish and the dead squirrel stunt was downright silly. And I also don't buy all that "Punk" bollocks. James Watts and his associates are no more punk than me or my daughter. They are very smart business people who know very well how to sell their brand, which is no minor thing. Of course, all this is of very little, in any, relevance. What interests me the most as a consumer is what I have in the glass and it should be said that, marketing bollocks or not, this Scots really know how to make beer. I've drunk many of the products of BrewDog and there hasn't been a single one that I disliked, from the simple stuff like Zeitgeist , to the more complex like the Paradox series. (though, based on some some comments I've heard and read, Tactical Nuclea

I'm pretty busy and very tired these days and actually, I can't be arsed very much with Christmas this year. I would like to go to sleep and not wake up until Jan. 2 or 3. This, of course, doesn't mean that I'm not in the mood to taste some of the stuff that's been specially brewed for the season. For a couple of weeks already, Pivovar U Medvídku has been offering Kaštanové Pivo , a beer brewed with an adjunct of chestnut flour. Very nice, the chestnuts are very subtle, yet they give a nice twist to the beer, resulting in something completely different to the other beers from U Medvídku. Brew Master Laďa Veselý told me he would have liked the beer to be more "chestnutty", but it was the first time he was working with the ingredient and he preferred to err on the side of caution (which, by the way, was a good decision because the flour was a bit of a nightmare to work with). U Klokočníka , that lovely dive in the backstreets of Nusle is already tapping

The other day, as I was almost arriving at my client's office in Churchillovo Nám., my mobile rang. It was my client saying that she was just leaving the Parliament, where she'd had a meeting that had extended for longer than expected. I got off the tram at Husinecká counting that I would have to kill around 20 minutes and what is the best way to kill time in Prague? Got for a quick pint, of course. I quickly scanned my mental database of watering holes in the area, looking for a suitable one to stop by. I chose that small pizza place with a Ježek sign outside, almost opposite the square. It had been closed for some time, but it had recently reopened. I got in and, even before taking a seat at the bar, I ordered a jedenáctká (for 22CZK). I'm a big fan of the multi rotating tap pubs, but sometimes I just prefer to go to a place and just order a "pivo" without having to ponder about it. The first pint went down as if it hadn't existed and the second one

On Monday I told you how busy I've been these days . Well, it turns out that now I've got more to do! A new Czech magazine has asked me to review imported beers and my first assignment are these three samples from De Molen It crossed my mind to find someone to do it for me, but that wouldn't be ethical, so I guess I will have to do it myself. Bugger! I must leave now. Duty calls. Na Zdraví!

With so many interesting topics to write about (besides, plenty of work of the kind that pays), I've been delaying these reviews of English Ales for a few months already. I got them from Mark and Sarah, an English couple and readers of my blog. We met for lunch back in August and as usual in this kind of meetings, we had a great time. It's really incredible how the mutual interest, if not passion, in beer makes it possible for people from different countries, ages and walks of life to feel almost like old mates once they meet personally; and this is, by far, the best this blog has given me and, no doubt, one of the things motivates me to keep on writing it. But let's talk about the beers. Mark and Sarah brought me samples of three breweries of their region, plus one from a London micro they picked on their way to the airport, all of them bottle conditioned. Their presentations are fantastic, as I'm almost used already with English beers and, except the Londoner, all

I have a couple things to write about, but I've had a bit too much work these days, not with my book , unfortunately, but with some really long and boring translations (I must confess that it is rather frustrating to translate something I doubt many people will ever read) that I need to finish by Wednesday. Anyway, it's Monday today. It's quite cold outside, not as much as a few days ago, but the temperature is still lovely enough. It's also snowing a bit (not as much as last Wednesday, that was insane!). I got up early and had my mandatory strong, black coffee (without it, my brain won't start up) while I got to work with that translation. After doing a few pages I got a bit hungry so I went downstairs to get a proper breakfast: Rye bread spread with domácí škvarkové sadlo (home made pork lard with drippings) and smoked beer . Breakfast of champions. Na Zdraví! PS: I didn't need to wear a jacket while I cleared the snow from the entrance to the house an