Czechia drinks more beer per head than any country on earth, and Prague is where that is most visible. What the tank beer is, how ordering works, and what you are actually paying for.
Czechia drinks more beer per head than any country on earth, and Prague is where that is most visible. The practical version is more interesting than the boast.
Beer here is ordered by degrees, not strength — the 10° and 12° on the menu describe the wort, roughly "lighter" and "fuller", not the alcohol. A desítka (10°) is the everyday drink and is usually the cheapest thing on the list.
Tank beer (tankové pivo) is unpasteurised beer delivered by tanker and kept in a cellar tank rather than a keg. Pubs advertise it because it is genuinely different, and it is one of the few things in the centre where the tourist-facing option is also the good one.
The head matters: a Czech pour is meant to arrive with a thick foam cap, and asking for it without one marks you out more than any accent will. Articles here cover ordering, what the price should be away from the bridge, and which styles are worth crossing town for.
A half-liter of draft beer in Prague can cost anywhere from around 35 Czech korunas to well over 100, and the gap is not random. It tracks two things: how far the pub sits from a landmark, and whether the menu is translated. Get close to a monument with an English menu, and the price … Read more
Tank beer — tankové pivo in Czech — is unpasteurized, unfiltered beer delivered to a pub in large sealed, pressurized tanks instead of small aluminum kegs. It skips the usual steps that extend shelf life, so it reaches the glass closer to how it left the brewery. Pubs advertise it because that freshness is the … Read more
A Czech pub, or hospoda, runs on a tab system, not a counter. A server opens a paper slip at your table when the first drink arrives, marks each round and dish on it as it’s served, and totals it only when you ask. You pay that server directly, in cash or by card, at … Read more
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