i gave up beer and lager drinking a few years ago when my weight was creeping too close to 18 stone..

growing up in the west country provided ample opportunity to enjoy
real hand pulled draught barreled beers..


but about 15 years ago i went on my first trip to Czeckoslovakia
with a mate who organised cultural exchange trips..

one of the perks was guided tours of czeck breweries

and drinking in the bars that served the freshest purest barrels of local brews..

including the real genuine origional budvar in Ceske Budejovice ..

after that first trip..

i'd spend the equivalent of 3 or 4 weeks a year travelling and drinking all around that beautifull mid european paradise..


you really can drink that stuff until you fall happily and gently unconcious..

and still wake up next without a hint of a hangover..


after that i couldnt enjoy heavier gravity trad english beers so much anymore..


luckily.. a few choice pubs around uk started to import barrels direct from
czech suppliers..


anyway.. in late 90's it seemed big global US & UK corporate beer brands..
were negotiating to buy into czeck breweries..

amidst much fear of modernisation and sterilisation of real czeck lagers in name of corporate progess..

and general westernisation of communist / mid european culture..

i stopped visiting and have'nt been back since 6 years..

so cant say if the lagers have been ruined or not..

.. anyway.. i reverted back to my own trad regional folk culture

and only drink fine quality natural pressed ciders these days..




or at worst.. big pubchain bland chemical fizzy ciderpops

if i'm outsocialising
in a place thats too prejudiced to ever consider stocking selling & the 'real thing'

[and my weight is now a healthier 15 and three quarter stone;
mostly gym toned muscle..!!!]