Czech, please (Zatec)
Nigel Huddleston visits Zatec, a brewery dedicated to reviving the Czech brewing tradition.
There are scars down the copper kettles in the brewhouse at the Czech Republic’s Zatec brewery. The lines mark where the kettles were welded back together at the end of the Second World War, having been chopped up and stored in a nearby cellar to stop the metal falling into German hands and being recycled as guns or planes... If you’re looking for a brewery that reeks of history, then Zatec is just the place.
It’s situated on the site of the castle that looks from a rocky perch over the city of the same name, some 80km west of Prague.
The brewery’s ice-cold fermentation and lagering rooms are carved out of the rocks, shielded from the sunlight and dripping with condensation. After years of neglect during Communism, the brewery is operating at only a fifth of its capacity, leaving large areas of this huge plant dormant and ghostly.
The brewery was bought in 2002 for “very little money,” by Englishman Rolf Munding and two minority Czech shareholders: Martin Kec, who handles the brewery’s marketing and exports, and consultant brewmaster Tomas Lejsek.
Munding also owns the Smith’s style bar operation in London’ Smithfield market and has recently bought the Wooden Head brewery in Cornwall.
At Zatec, Munding has spent in the region of e2million improving the parts of the brewery that are still in operation.
The strategy has been to retain elements of Czech brewing tradition such as open fermentation tanks and upgrade the bits where modern technology was desperately needed.
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : International Brewery
Page number : 36
