Pilsner Urquell Tour / Plzn Czech Republic

When your dad brews his own beer, and comes to the Czech Republic, a tour of The Pilsner Urquell Brewery is a must!

From Prague, Plzn Czech Republic is an hour bus ride, and it only cost $4 to get there! (Also the bus service gave us free coffee on board, so we were happy campers!)

The city of Plzn is beautiful, and has the same unique architecture and colored buildings we have been seeing in the Czech Republic!

On the way over the Pilsner Urquell, we stopped inside The Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, completed in the 16th century. The cathedral is in the city center, and its tower is the highest point in Plzn! (Anytime we got lost we looked for it in the sky!)

The inside of the Cathedral is Gothic, and the cathedral is on a list of National cultural monuments of the Czech Republic!

We made our way to Pilsner Urquell, and entered the brewery through the original Urquell gate!

Back in the 1800s, they used ride horses through the gates, dragging barrels on their carts!

An old beer wagon, that was pulled through this gate!

The brewery was huge, and we made our way to the welcome center for tour tickets!

Below is the official biography of Pilsner Urquell:

In 1838, a momentous event in Plzen saw 36 barrels of bad beer smashed and emptied into the street. Around 250 burghers had brewing rights in the city but poor quality beer combined with some tavern owners having higher prices than others (meaning the beer sold slower and turned sour), and the threat of cheaper imported beers replacing their own brews.

Something had to be done and a committee of important townsfolk decided that the answer was to build one new brewery to be run by the city. In January 1839 a plan was agreed upon and work started to build this new brewery.

A young architect named Martin Stelzer was enlisted to build the Burgher’s Brewery, a forerunner to the present day brewing company. A visionary Bavarian brewmaster, Josef Groll, was hired to make the beer and he combined new techniques to produce pale malted barley, he used local Czech hops, he took the soft water of Plzen, and chose a lager yeast. A new beer was born.

The first batch of beer was brewed on 5th October 1842. Five weeks later, on 11th November, the beer was first drunk in the town. A golden beer – the world’s first golden lager – it was fresh, clear and refreshing with a hint of caramel sweetness and a fragrant, balanced hop bitterness. It was an immediate success and a proud moment for the city of Plzen. Since that day the recipe has remained the same.

The lobby of Pilsner Urquell, where we waited for our tour to begin!

The official papers that gave Pilsner the right to manufacture their beer!

The brewery is so big, that you have to take a bus to all of the different sections of the tour!

The water tower was built in 1907 and its design is reminiscent of a traditional Dutch lighthouse.

Inside the factory, where Pilsner Urquell is brewed and packaged every day! Every Pilsner in the world comes straight from this factory!

The modern bottling facility processes 120,000 bottles per hour!

Each bottle is washed, dried, and inspected before the beer is added!

We then went into a 360 movie theatre, where we learned about the history of Pilsner!

We were able to taste the hops and grains that go into the beer!

In his element!

We then got to see the original copper tanks that the beer was brewed and transferred in!

During World War II, copper was in high demand and many breweries were taken apart. The brewers in Plzen wouldn’t let this happen to Groll’s first copper tank and so they hid it where no one could find it. In fact, no one in the brewery today even knows how they managed to hide it or where they put it! The original:

Pictures of Pilsner Urquell over the years!

We then headed underground to see where the barrels are stored! These tunnels go back all the way to the 14th century!

We got the opportunity to drink Pilsner straight from the barrel, unfiltered and unpasteurized! This is the only place in the world you can get this experience!

Cheers!

Barrels of fun!

We ended the night by going to the Pilsner Urquell official restaurant on the grounds, and we got traditional Czech food! (And of course dad got another beer!)

My personal favorite thing I sipped that day: Goulash in a breadbowl!

So happy I got to be there with my dad when he visited one of his dream breweries! Such a cool experience, and even though I'm not a huge beer drinker, I now understand everything that goes into the process, and the unique history behind Pilsner Urquell!