Town Brewery in Štramberk
After 150 years the Town
Brewery revived the local tradition of brewing beer in Štramberk at the
location where beer used to be brewed and tapped centuries ago. Today we brew
light unfiltered Pilsner type lager and dark unfiltered Flek type lager named
Trubač.
During his beer exploration tour, Stan Sesser, a beer expert and reporter of the Wall Street Journal, labelled local dark beer as “the best dark beer of 2006 in Central Europe”. You can also taste some of our special beers with sour cherry or plum flavour. Local homemade cuisine is famous for its specialties prepared not only in beer. Hot pork scraps go without saying and that is only the beginning of the exquisite gourmet experience.
Production of Štramberk Beer
History 
The first mention of beer brewing in Štramberk dates back to 4th December 1359 when Moravian margrave Jan (brother of Charles IV.) granted the town of Štramberk the so-called “town mile privilege” which among others says: “… whoever would want to tap in those settlements can get the beer in the above mentioned town of Štramberk in any possible way…”
The privilege to brew beer as well as to tap it here belonged exclusively to the oldest 22 local tap houses located mostly on the Štramberk square. Residents of these houses formed the Burghers’ Tap Order and had to observe its statutes. The oldest preserved order named “How Should Behave the One Who Wants to Be Accepted as a Tap Brother” dates back to the year 1788.
At first the beer was brewed according to the so-called “order” successively in individual tap houses with the privilege of tapping and selling beer. It wasn’t until later when the town brewery of which only the deep well with spring water has been preserved was built on the Štramberk square. In 1744 the brewery was rebuilt due to increased beer consumption and in 1787 a malt-house was added. The brewery’s highest capacity was 18 kegs of beer which is approximately 38.5 hl. The chief brewer who according to the order brewed beer for individual tap burghers used to brew beer there. The first documented brewer was František Vacín who brewed beer in 1789–1790. The house in which the beer was being tapped was clearly marked with the so-called “vícha”. This was a large earthenware jug which was placed outside the window of the house concerned. The brewery building standing in the square, displayed on the picture of Štramberk from the first half of the 18th century, was pulled down in 1868 due to its bad state.
Present
The Štramberk Town Brewery is located directly on the Štramberk square in a historical house no. 5, which is one of the original burgher houses with brewing privileges. In its basement, which is situated below the square level, you can still see complex cellarage with stone vaults and two wells cut out in rock – a main one and an auxiliary one, from which water for brewing was taken. During clearance and ground shaping works in the cellar, there were, among others, found broken pieces of medieval ceramic beer mugs, which are a tangible evidence of the tradition of brewing production in this house.
The brewery building is divided into several departments where we serve unfiltered or, “live” beer with yeast that has distinctive qualities which distinguish it from other beers from large-capacity breweries where the taste of beer is influenced by its filtration, stabilization and pasteurization. This offers you a unique opportunity to taste “the beer” your fathers’ fathers used to know in times when good beer was not a privilege but a professional honour.
After you enter the brewery, on its ground floor you will find the Town Pub, the Brewery Restaurant and a taproom with copper brewing vessels. In the cellar, there is the Stone Taproom, and the first floor houses modern sport & dance bar Apollo Burn Club with a large-screen projection.
The Brewery Restaurant
It is the flagship of the brewery with a capacity of 20 seats. In this restaurant decorated with historical documents and photos depicting brewery motifs you will certainly enjoy the home-made specialties prepared not only in beer.
The Town Pub
A smaller room situated right behind the entrance on the left offering 12 seats is used by newly coming guests and regulars who want to enjoy Trubač beer and have some light refreshments. From morning till night you can help yourselves to some hot thick soup or some small snack. The Pub is decorated with advertising pictures and pictures of objects dating back to the time between the First Republic and the post-war years of the last century.
Stone Taproom
It is located in the brewery cellar and seats up to 48 people. Its interior decoration gives the taproom the look of a small brewery museum featuring a restaurant. Among three-dimensional objects displayed in niches and in a corridor interlinking the cellar rooms you can find a functioning tapping bar from the 1930s, as well as equipment and vessels that brewers and publicans used in different times for brewing and serving beer. Every Friday, you can join to enjoy folk songs performed by an accordionist.
WHAT IS BEER MADE OF AND HOW?
The production of beer utilizes four basic ingredients:
- Malt – most often from barley but it is possible to use also e.g. wheat for the production of the so-called “white beer”
- Water – thanks to the local bedrock the composition of water in the Štramberk region is convenient for beer brewing
- Hops – the best varieties of hops are grown in the Žatec region, only female cones are used. Hops give the beer its characteristic smell and bitter flavour
- Brewer’s yeast – ensures the conversion of extractive matters and represents one of the decisive factors in beer production
(the brewing house, located by the main tap, brews 2.5 hl of wort from one batch)
Beer Brewing Process
After the malt is ground and mixed with water it is heated up in order to convert the contained starch to fermentable sugars. This is based on decoction mashing, typical for the production of Czech beers. Mashing substantially consists in a series of technological processes the aim of which is to attain suitable composition of the so-called “mash wort” based on optimization of temperatures and time delays. After filtering off all solid particles and desugarization the mashed wort is allowed to boil and hops (hop boiling) which gives the beer its characteristic aroma and bitterness is added. After this so-called “hopped wort” is cooled down and aerated brewer’s yeast is added and the main fermentation process begins. In this production phase optimum temperatures suitable for ideal fermentation ranging from 10 – 12ºC have to be maintained. Fermentation represents a biochemical process during which sugars are converted to alcohol and other products while carbon dioxide (CO2) is gradually released. This fermentation phase produces fermenting beer. Approximately after 7 – 10 days of fermentation the fermenting beer is pumped into a lager cellar where it is left to mature for further 3 – 7 weeks at low temperatures around 0ºC and is aerated with carbon dioxide. In this phase the beer matures and gains its typical character and well-balanced taste.
BRIEF HISTORY OF BEER
Each fermented grain drink can be called beer. The beer making tradition dates back as far as to ancient times, i.e. the Neolithic Age when people started to grow grain on purpose to cover their needs. First verified documentation on beer production originated 5 000 years ago in fertile areas of Mesopotamia spreading around the Eufrates and Tigris rivers. The production of shikarum, as the beer was called, was mainly women’s business. Shikarum was a cloudy and sparkling drink produced using grown hops. Nevertheless, this ingredient was later forgotten for several thousand years. For instance ancient Egyptians brewed their beer, “zythum”, using their own ingredients as e.g. saffron, ginger and the like, whereas the most popular kind of beer was beer with added date juice. In Europe, the consumption of beer was spread mainly by the so-called barbaric nations living outside the Roman Empire that preferred intoxicating drinks produced from wine. Celtic tribes of the ancient Gallia, for example, worshiped Sucelluse, god of brewers, and they also introduced a tradition which has survived to this day – storing beer in oak barrels (until then it used to be stored in earthenware jars like wine). On the verge of the first millennium certain production process order and system which has been preserved to this day provided the so-far widespread production with production processes used in monasteries and abbeys. The consumption of beer was continuously increasing and as early as in the 13th century the production of beer can be referred to as the brewing industry. Also towns were granted the beer making privilege by means of the so-called “houses with brewing privileges”. Originally mainly “white” wheat beer was produced, later it was replaced by barley beer.
A crucial change in the process of beer production occurred in the 1950s when bottom fermentation prevailed once for all. This method involves enhanced attenuation of the hopped wort which resulted in the production of a new type of lager beer, worldwide known as Pilsner type lager, which is characteristic for its rich foam, more bitter taste and lighter colour.
