If you've spent any time around Old Town, Prague, you quickly come to realize that all seasons are tourist season. Memories of cheap beer and affordable, hearty Eastern European fare are quickly dragged back into reality. In 2008, post-EU and the after the first, second, and third waves of tourism from Europe, North America, and Asia,  Old Town is essentially one large tourist trap. Even old time institutions like U FleckU and U Medvidku have pushed most locals out, with higher prices and annoying tourists. Locals have fled to the suburbs, where 20kr pilsners are still available.

Just across the bridge from Praha 1 in Mala Strana, lies a small bastion of Czech culture. Not quite the suburbs, but far enough off the tourist track that locals still socialize uninhibitedly. Here, Stara Praha, a restopub sponsored by Staropramen Brewery, maintains their commitment to cheap beer and good food. After days of eating heavy pork, doner kebabs, and rich Eastern European fare, I was craving some good old simple food. Nothing dressed up, nothing fused with French techniques to create Nouveau Czech dishes, but honest food. My first attempt was met with a completely booked service. Luckily, I was able to get away for a lunch later that trip.

In Prague, there are five major breweries of which Staropramen is the largest. To extoll the virtues of Czech Beer would require another essay completely. Let's just say, all you have to know is it is tough to go wrong with any Czech Beers. Staropramen brews a particularly good pale, lager, and dark. Just like most other Czech Breweries. The Pale was particularly good - hoppy, well-fermented, slightly bitter, with fruit notes on the finish, this is the perfect beer to go with the heavier dishes served in Eastern Europe. I really liked the dark as well, though I find it a bit heavier, and only drink it on it's own, or with snacks, not with a full meal.

The food at Stara Praha was fantastic - probably the best example of "home-cooked" Czech food i've had. I had two basic dishes. The first was drstkova polevka - tripe soup. Recommended by a poster on Chowhound, they were bang on in how extraordinary this soup was. The sharp spices cut through the days of accumulated pork fat that had collected within my system - alternating spicey bursts with the rubbery, crunchy chewy bits of tripe was perfect. Now i know tripe isnt for everyone, but this was one fantastic soup.

My entree was the goulash. This was honestly the first goulash i had in Prague that i truly enjoyed. Previous goulashes were bland, plain, and excessively oily, with poor quality, chewy beef. This goulash was peppery, and flavourful. The meat had been simmered for an appropriate period of time and was tender yet firm. The sauce was reduced to concentrate the flavours - and delivered with strong notes of pepper, tomatos, clove,  paprika, nutmeg, and allspice. A touch of sourness in the sauce, and in the dumplings, helped counter balance the excessively oily nature of the goulash itself. This was excellent goulash.

I have a definite love-hate relationship with food in Prague. While i think Czech food in general is underrated, I found it tough to find good honest food around Old Town. To some, this may sound like expecting great food in Disneyland, but I was hoping for less of an impact from the throngs of tourists - hoping against hope there would be some honest eateries left. Stara Praha is one of the few places in the central core that served a meal that was high in value - great food at great prices - and based on the lineups and full houses they entertained, it is not surprising to see that the locals feel the same way. With great beer and great food, if you find yourself in Wenceslas Square overwhelmed by photographers and touts, and craving a good meal, head west, past the Tesco, over the Vlatava, into Mala Strana. It'll give you, and your wallet, a taste of how Prague was in the 90's, before  Praha was "discovered".

On the outside, everything looks very good. The four-pack cardboard packaging looks interesting and expensive. As does the bottle.

The green glass matches the green and red of the labels very well indeed. This is shaping up to be more sophisticated that it's hurriedly imported competitors.

The neck label has a smaller version of the tasteful "Staropramen" logo. Plus a very important word. "Imported" is always a welcome sight on a beer. Unless you're in Belgium.

The main front label continues with much the same theme. There's a detailed background picture that, going by the big red name "Prague", is indeed the capital city of said country. The "Staropramen" logo is there, looking like the name of an American baseball team. There are the helpfully vague words "Premium Beer" underneath that. Also in the middle of the label is the Staropramen crest, made up of barley and hops no less. It also proudly displays the year 1869. Surprisingly, a year that makes it one of the youngest Czech beers that I've tried. Apparently age has no bearing on flavour with these bottles.

This is a front label with a busy border. Nowhere more so than around the bottom edge. The big red stamp declares Staropramen as the pride of Prague since 1869. And that this 330 millilitre bottle has the ubiquitous 5% alcoholic volume.

The back label is rather less busy. Almost empty is comparison.

This emptiness comes from only having three languages on there. Which makes a change from some export beer bottles that try to squeeze in so many languages that it makes the Lisbon Treaty seem readable in comparison.

All this space means that we get something unusual: a full ingredients list. Take a look on any other beer bottle, and chances are that all they will say is "malted barley and hops". Not here. Staropramen was made with "water, barley malt, barley, maltose syrup, hops, hop extract". No big surprises. Just good to have all the details for once.

There are some other interesting details in there too. It was imported and distributed by "The Pioneer Brewing Co." of Luton, with their full address and telephone number. There is the full address of the brewer too. And yes, Staropramen does come from Pivovary Staropramen a.s. from Prague in the Czech Republic.

Lastly, there is a web address. The http://www.staropramen.com/ website, like those of other brewers, is Flash heavy. It's also a good way to tempt yourself with more beers that they don't sell where you live. Unfortunately, if rather predictably, on the website they describe this bottle as "Premium Lager". Better get a head start on the opening of this bottle by feeling bored now.

Once poured, Staropramen Premium Lager comes with a surprisingly thick head. If you can pour it that is. The head overwhelmed my little half-pint glass. It stays around too. Even minutes after pouring, it's still a thick layer of froth. No patchy bubbles here.

It looks better than I expected it too, as well. It could easily have been a cheap pale yellow colour. But instead, it's a slightly darker amber hue. A small difference, I'll grant you, but welcome nonetheless.

It has a richer smell than lots of the big-name lagers too. I'd say it smells mostly of barley. And for a lager, that's an unusual blend. How would you describe the smell?

At this point, I normally try the drink and report that the look and smell were all just a disguise for an atrocious and bland taste. Not so here. Remarkably, I quite like it.

It still tastes lagery, but this take on the flavour is one of the better ones. A light tasting barley and hops are what you notice first. Gently followed by a light, lingering bitterness. The whole thing is tastes rounded and well balanced. All without the aid of rice to the blend.

I didn't expect to have much praise to heap on Staropramen Premium Beer/Lager. Boy, have I been proved wrong with my preconceptions about this one. It looks, smells and tastes of quality lager. When the website described it as having a bite, I expected another Bavaria Holland Beer. That had a lagery bite. I hated it. But lots of you left comments saying that you loved it. With Staropramen, there is no real bite as far as I can taste. Instead, it's an easy to drink, relatively tasty and well balanced lager.

Being a lager, it inevitably has down sides. It may be one of the most accessible lagers on the market, but if you positively hate that lagery blend of flavours, you won't be a fan of this. Other downsides? Well, its one of the gassier lagers I've tried. The head can get in the way if all you want is a quick drink. And if you truly want interesting beer flavours, why not try a real beer or ale instead of a lager?

To sum up, Staropramen Premium Beer/Lager is so much better than I was expecting. I'm not a fan of the lagery "bite", so I was delighted to find it almost absent from this bottle. With it's well balanced taste, it's not only my favourite Czech bottle, but one of my favourite bottles lagers, full-stop. That said, it is still a lager. If you like lager, by all means enjoy this one. As for me, I'll be enjoying something with real flavour, probably with the word "ale" written somewhere on the bottle.

Rating: 3.25

Have you tried Staropramen Premium Beer/Lager? What did you think of it?
Leave your corrections, opinions, thoughts, ideas and recommendations in the little comment boxes below.

Here's a link to the story: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2409d0a4-43c2-11dd-842e-0000779fd2ac.html

I mean, let's see, the company that makes arguably the best beers in the world (Stella, Hoegaarden, Staropramen, Murphy's, St. Pauli Girl, etc.) is going to take over the one company that is probably most responsible for crappy tasting american beer, and we're supposed to be upset about it?

You have to figure it will only mean that beer in the United States will get better. The beer lobby will stop trying to limit the alcohol content in beer to keep foreign competition out. They will start using better ingredients (less corn, more malt). And let's talk about prices...

Do you realize how much cheaper beer is in Belgium (that's where InBev is headquartered) than in the United States? No kidding, you can get a Duval in a bar for about one Euro (so that's about $1.50). That same beer here in the States would cost you probably $6.00, and that's IF you can find a bar that even carries it.

Of course most of the cost of alcohol in the U.S. is taxes. When you see your Congressman, be sure to tell him "thanks".

The reason the Duval isn't in the bar is because of ... wait. Could it be Anheuser-Busch intimidating the bars into only carrying their products? Say it ain't so...

Me? I say, let it happen. I mean, it ain't going to make the beer any worse.

• Builder says the extension will be finished next week.
  Thank God!
  (See Bad Things)
• Cleared a space in the builders rubble and lay in the sun on Saturday afternoon.
  Not the most congenial of surroundings, but if you closed your eyes and tuned into 'Birdsong' on DAB radio, you could have been lying anywhere.
• Drinking chilled Staropramen in the rubble

Bad Things

• Eating out of a microwave and a George Foreman grill for a month (probably more)
  This genuinely isn't a Good Thing.
• Middle Age
  I don't know at what age you should start becoming unsteady on your feet and start falling in the street (and I mean when sober), but I made an impressive start last Monday. Outside the pub - of all places. Went down like an elephant that's just been shot - you know, the slow motion thing. Twenty or thirty years ago you'd have shrugged this off and been back on your feet in no time. Not any longer. And doesn't it take longer to get back to normal? The aches are still there a week later.
• Free Goldfish
  I won't go into the details of this, suffice to say it was a Buy One Get Two Free sort of deal. Anyway there was a 'free' one spare, so it is now sharing the big bowl with Bully. Now this fish was 'free' for a reason. It has to be the poorest looking specimen I have ever seen (although I heard the second of the 'free' fish has since expired). What's the betting this little scrawny little minnow will last forever?

Ich hab' lieber Oberwasser als Oberhand oder gar oberhaupt nichts von alledem. Der Grund ist Ursula.  Ursula, das schwarze Schaf unter den Wirtinnen und Wirten Berlins, hauptsächlich wegen ihrer Intelligenz und ihrer Kunst, normale Gäste (weiße Schafe) einzuschüchtern, ohne so richtig zu wissen wie ihr das gelingt.

Für andere schwarze Schafe ist sie wie das reizendste Mutterschaf. Ursula erkennt ihresgleichen ziemlich schnell, und befördert die Auserwählten dann zur Elite ihrer Gäste, die begrüßt wird mit Küsschen links und Küsschen rechts. Wer derart privilegiert ist, braucht ihre scharfe Zunge nicht zu fürchten, sondern kann sie in der Form ihres ausgiebigen Lästerns genießen.

Mittlerweile schart Ursula eine ziemlich umfangreiche Herde schwarzer Schafe auf ihrer Weide Oberwasser um sich, wo sie würziges Staropramen vom Fass grasen, und sich an den handgemachten Köstlichkeiten aus ihrer Küche laben. Selbstgesammelte Pilze. Frische Spätzle. Köstliche Bratkartoffeln. Herrliche Suppen. Geduld ist mitzubringen, denn Ursula macht alles selbst, und immer schön nacheinander. Wer nach seinem Essen blökt, entlarvt sich als weißes Schaf. Also heißt es Haltung bewahren!

Zur Herde gehören auch viele Musiker, weswegen es oft Hausmusik gibt im Oberwasser. Mal ist es Jazz, mal Klezmer, mal Swing, mal Blues, mal Tango, und immer unplugged. Merkwürdiges wie verjazzte Weihnachtslieder mit zwei Saxofonen, in der Qualität stark schwankendes wie der Klezmer-Stammtisch an jedem 15., geniales wie Tango mit zwei Akkordeons oder einfach Gassenhauer mit Geige und Klavier. Es lohnt sich immer, hinzugehen wenn Ursula anruft und sagt: "Wollt ihr nicht kommen, ich mach wieder ein Konzert."

Externes Wohnzimmer gesucht? Ich empfehle Zionskirchstraße Nr. 6, vielleicht ist sogar noch ein Platz auf dem Sofa frei...