Budweiser Budvar is one of the world's great classic beers because the people who brew it know they are practising a craft. They may be scientists or technicians but above all they are craftsmen engaged in a creative process practised according to rules and knowledge evolved by generations of brewers.
This is why Budweiser Budvar beers, Dark or Original, enjoy a 100 day natural brewing cycle, 90 of them fermenting using nothing but the finest natural raw materials including whole female and virgin Saaz hops, barley malt from Moravia (the home of great lager barleys), a yeast culture used at the start up in 1895 and still going strong today and natural spring water drawn from an ice age lake 300 meters under the brewery.
The devotion of the brewery to assuring the quality of its raw materials is absolute. Take the example of the hops. Firstly they are brought only from specified growers who can produce the optimum product. These hops are then stored at the brewery in a purpose built store that keeps them in optimum condition until they are needed. This is the only store of its kind in the Czech Republic and probably Europe.
Where modern technology has been introduced it is only to enhance the quality of the beer and to ensure it more than conforms to ever rising international standards. For instance the cooling of wort in butts has been replaced by closed system cooling whilst the fermentation process is about stainless steel and computers and oak barrels being replaced by horizontal stainless steel lagering tanks.
Budweiser Budvar is proud of its brewing practice and completely transparent about it. Anybody who is interested can take one of the regular tours of the brewery and see for themselves the finest example in Europe of brewing best practice and one devoted to the maintenance of traditional values.
