Interview: Prague-based beer expert Evan Rail on how you can support Czech breweries

California native Evan Rail has been covering Czech beer for over two decades. In advance of International Beer Day on August 7, we asked the Prague-based journalist and editor at Good Beer Hunting to give us some insights on the implications of the current situation for the beer industry as well as advice on how to support Czech breweries in their hour of need.

Evan also offered up some mind-blowing (if you’re a beer geek) beer facts and revealed his current favorite brewery visit (hint: it’s not in Prague).

Read the full interview below:

One of our most popular articles during lockdown was a piece on how to support Czech breweries. What’s with the continued outpouring of passion for Czech beer?

What do you make of the recent stats that say Czech beer consumption has dropped off exponentially?

There’s also data that shows domestic consumers increasingly prefer bottles to draft beer. Is this worrying to a beer connoisseur such as yourself?

Has Czech pub culture taken a hit? Can you talk about how your personal experience of pub-going compares pre- and post-lockdown?

What’s the first pint you lifted after the quarantine and where?

But there’s a cafe near me that serves beer outside. And I think the first beer I had was one of my favorites. It’s Benedict from Břevnov and they had Benedict on draft and I couldn’t not get one, so my wife and I shared one when we were walking the dog the first week after the lockdown ended and it was great.

How did you enjoy beer during the lockdown period, did you experiment with homebrewing or get delivery from a favorite brewery?

In addition, I got deliveries or bought from local breweries, from Dva kohouti, which is over here by me and Czech beer in bottles and cans for home delivery from supermarkets.

You recently tweeted about Pivovarský klub closing — have there been any other COVID casualties that you know of on the Czech beer scene?

Pivovarský klub is the only COVID casualty that I know of. So far, that’s the biggest one that’s come to my attention, at least there have certainly been a number of bars and pubs have closed, but not really big casualties yet.

How has the crisis affected your work as a journalist who covers beer and travel topics? 

I’m very lucky in that I have a regular gig as an editor at the online magazine, Good Beer Hunting. And in addition, I have a pretty wide range of subjects that I write about. I’ve recently written about media psychology and alcohol for Wine Enthusiast magazine and I wrote about whiskey producers in Europe who are starting to make rye whiskey, which is largely thought of as an American style of whiskey, for The New York Times.

I keep writing for places like Vine Pair and other publications, The Wall Street Journal, and so forth. And it’s not just beer, but it’s often beer. I would say that there’s probably not much of a market for travel articles aimed towards America from Europe because Americans are not traveling here. But I’m still writing about beer regularly. I have plenty of outlets and I’m very happy about that.

How can people support the industry? Any advice you can give us?

I think the best thing you can do is buy directly from your local brewery. If you go straight to Únětice and buy takeaway bottles from Únětický pivovar if you’re not dining there or drinking there, that’s a great way to do it. Břevnov brewery also sells beer to go, you can buy some of the world’s greatest lagers and enjoy those at home. And that really helps.

If breweries have taprooms, you can always patronize those if you are not comfortable drinking in your local pub, but you feel like drinking beer. Take a pitcher down there. I did that just the other day and I got my pitcher filled up with Hostomice beer from a pub by me and it’s a great way to support a brewery.

I’ve also noticed that Albert supermarkets have a refrigerator unit filled with beer from smaller producers like Hostivar and other local breweries from around the country. And you can find some really interesting and great beers in Albert supermarkets that are owned independently and not by major corporations.

Because people are staying home more this summer, can you suggest a few beer-themed trips?

This is hard to do because there are now so many breweries in the Czech Republic. They are virtually everywhere. But if there is one brewery I would call out by name, it would be Wild Creatures Brewery in Mikulov, South Moravia. Wild Creatures just opened their brewery to the public this summer; they now have seating for the public. It used to be just a place where they made beer. But you can go there and sample the beers and have tastings there and if you meet the owner Jitka Ilčíková she can talk to you about her beers.

What is the best way to celebrate Czech beer on International Beer Day?

I would say drinking outside with your friends, social distancing, as responsibly as possible, but enjoy a good pale lager from a local brewery and have a good time. If you can, be on the water this summer. Having a good beer next to a river or a lake is just one of the great pohoda moments of a Czech summer, and I wish everyone could experience that.

Impress us with one obscure fact we don’t know about Czech beer (and we know a lot them).

How do you see the future of the Czech beer industry, is there a spark of hope?

There is basically no stopping the growth of small local brewpubs there. When my book came out in 2007, there were about 55 brewpubs in the country. And nowadays I think there are about four hundred, four hundred and fifty. And that’s in just 13 years.

What are you working on, what’s next?

You’ve died and gone to heaven. What’s on tap?

I would really like to drink a Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, which was my favorite go-to beer back home. But if I can have any beer on tap right now, it would be a Benedict Břevnov. And if I were in heaven and they had bottles, they would have aged Orval and probably some Cantillon gueuze.

Follow Evan Rail on Instagram and Twitter.