Czech beer styles explained: what to order in Prague

Czech beer means lager almost everywhere in the country, sold by degrees rather than by alcohol percentage, and best known abroad through Pilsner Urquell, the beer that started the pale lager style in Plzeň in 1842. In Prague, the same beer is poured two ways: from a standard keg or, in a growing number of pubs, straight from a pressurised tank delivered unpasteurised from the brewery. Beyond the everyday pale ležák, a smaller but genuine tradition of dark lager and house-brewed beer survives in a handful of historic Prague brewpubs. Knowing the degrees, the delivery method and the styles makes it easier to order with confidence and to find something beyond the beer taps nearest the Old Town Square.

Lager, graded in degrees, not alcohol

Almost all Czech beer is bottom-fermented lager, and it is traditionally labelled by degrees Plato rather than by alcohol by volume. The number measures the fermentable extract in the wort, the liquid drawn from malted barley, before fermentation starts, not the finished alcohol content. The most common strengths are 10 degrees, a lighter everyday beer, and 12 degrees, a fuller bodied ležák that most people mean when they just say "pivo" without qualifying it. An 11 degree segment also exists from some breweries. Visitors sometimes assume the degree number is the alcohol percentage, which it is not, although a stronger beer by degree usually does end up a little stronger in alcohol too. The Czech customs administration still publishes annual production statistics broken down by Plato degree, and Czech brewers' associations have said there are no concrete plans at EU level to force a change to alcohol-only labelling, so the degree system is likely to stay part of how beer is sold and talked about in Prague for the foreseeable future.

Pilsner Urquell and the world's first pale lager

The beer style most associated with Czech brewing was born in Plzeň, about 90 minutes from Prague. Brewer Josef Groll produced the first batch at what is now the Pilsner Urquell brewery on 5 October 1842, and it was served publicly in the city on 11 November that year. It is widely credited as the world's first pale lager, at a time when most Bohemian beer was darker and top-fermented. The style was copied so widely afterwards that "pils" or "pilsner" became a generic name for pale lager around the world, and the brewery registered "Pilsner Urquell", meaning roughly "original source", as a trademark in 1898. The beer that most people in Prague order today, whatever the brand on the tap handle, is a descendant of that 1842 recipe. Our day trip from Prague to Plzeň and the Pilsner Urquell brewery takes in the brewhouse, the historic cellars and a tasting, together with the rest of the city.

Tank beer: the freshest pour in Prague

A growing number of Prague pubs serve tankové pivo, tank beer, as an alternative to the usual keg. Instead of travelling from the brewery in kegs or bottles, the beer arrives by tanker lorry and is pumped into a pressurised stainless steel tank in the pub's cellar, from which it is poured straight to the tap. Because the tank is sealed and kept cold, the beer does not need pasteurising, the heating process breweries normally use so that bottled and kegged beer survives longer in transport and storage. Pasteurising dulls flavour and aroma, so skipping it is the main reason tank beer tastes noticeably fresher to many drinkers. Not every tank pub serves an unfiltered beer as well, since filtering and pasteurising are two separate steps, so an unfiltered beer, called nefiltrované, may be sold in bottles too, labelled as such. If a pub advertises tank beer, it is usually a sign that it takes its beer seriously, and it is worth asking what is on tap that day, since tanks are refilled on a schedule set by the brewery rather than kept stocked with every style at once.

Dark beer and other styles worth trying

Pale ležák is only part of the picture. Tmavé pivo, Czech dark lager, is brewed with several types of malt, including caramel and darker roasted malt, for a fuller body and a light, balanced roastiness rather than a strong burnt character. It is often compared to the Munich dunkel or the German schwarzbier, though Czech brewers and drinkers treat it as its own tradition, and it makes up a small share of total Czech beer production today, which is part of why it is worth seeking out rather than expecting to find everywhere. Nefiltrované, unfiltered beer, keeps the yeast in suspension for a cloudier look and a yeastier, breadier taste. Beyond Pilsner Urquell, Budějovický Budvar from České Budějovice, a town the Germans historically called Budweis, is the other internationally known Czech brewery: it has brewed under that name since 1895, in a town with a brewing history going back to the 13th century. The shared "Budweiser" name with the unrelated American brewery has led to a long-running trademark dispute in multiple countries, which is part of the reason Budvar is sold under different names depending on where in the world you find it.

Historic Prague breweries worth seeking out

Two Prague addresses let you taste beer with a real claim to history, inside the city rather than on a day trip. U Fleků, in the New Town, traces its brewing on the same site to a documented purchase of the house in 1499, and it brews only its own dark lager, nowhere else in the world, a continuity it advertises through its own brewery museum on site. Whether it is Europe's single oldest brewpub is disputed by beer historians, but the 1499 date and the unbroken house style are well documented. At Strahov Monastery, overlooking the city from Petřín hill, a brewery is recorded on the site from as early as the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, with a dedicated brewhouse built in the 1620s. It closed in 1907 and stood idle for most of the 20th century, before the monastery complex was restored and a working microbrewery reopened there around 2000, brewing again in copper kettles in what was once the carriage hall. Both are easy to combine with sightseeing nearby, Strahov with the Strahov Library and Petřín, and U Fleků with a walk through the New Town.

How PraguePrivate can help

Working out which pub serves tank beer that day, which brewpub is actually open to visitors, and how to fit a brewery visit around the rest of a Prague itinerary takes local knowledge. PraguePrivate offers guidance and coordination for exactly this kind of planning: we put together the itinerary, confirm timings with the local teams who deliver each visit, and stay the single point of contact before and during your stay. Our Czech food and beer tasting tour is led by a local guide through a traditional pub for tank beer, a sandwich bar and a restaurant that still cooks the old way, and for a longer day out, we can combine it with the trip to Plzeň and the Pilsner Urquell brewery. If you would rather choose your own pubs and just want a table held at a busy one, our restaurant reservation service can arrange it, and our wider guide to Czech food in Prague covers what to eat alongside the beer.