Czechvar

A few weeks ago, my sister - knowing my love of all things Czech, as well as most things beer - presented me with a six-pack of a beer labeled "Czechvar - Premium Czech Lager." At first, I was merely amused by the novelty of it - a true Czech beer! (Although a few years ago a friend and I brewed a batch of Czech-style pilsner - the world-famous "Czechmate Brew" - Irvine hardly qualifies as my family's homeland.)

The novelty wore off relatively quickly (a few days of seeing the bottles lined up in the fridge), and I decided to pop one open and try it. Even Nicole got in on the game, wanting to taste a true Czech brew.

We should have taken it as a bad omen when I couldn't get the bottles open. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see that the cap and top inch-and-a-half of the bottle are wrapped in a piece of gold-colored foil. That foil is completely glued down to the bottle, making it impossible to tear off except in tiny strips. Eventually, I gave up and just used a bottle opener to take off the cap directly from under the foil, which was effective except that it made the bottle-drinking experience uncomfortable (and slightly dangerous).

On first sip, Czechvar is brutally bitter. So bitter, in fact, that it's hard to distinguish any other flavor, subtle or otherwise. It made for a thoroughly unsatisfying drinking experience. (Nicole may have sworn off beer forever, although that just leaves all the beer drinking to me.)

The only solace was that, as the beer warmed up, so did the flavor. Which, in retrospect, makes me wonder if we should have been drinking it warm all along (or even at room temperature). Too late to think about that now.

Also, as a final note, in trying to find a picture for this post on Czechvar, I came across the Wikipedia page for the beer, which revealed to me that the beer is, in fact, the Budweiser of the Czech Republic - literally!