Vinohradský Pivovar opens new brewery outside of Prague

Microbreweries have become a hot trend in Prague over the past decade, but one of the city's most popular ones may be growing out of that designation. Prague 2-based beermaker Vinohradský Pivovar opened a new brewery in Káraný, northeast of Prague, on Thursday, thanks to which it will be able to produce significantly more beer.

The new brewery is not only a production facility, but also a taproom where visitors can sample fresh pours and take home cans and kegs. The taps are officially running at Vinohradský Pivovar's new Káraný location this weekend, despite some inclement weather.

"Yesterday we officially opened our new brewery in Káraný," Vinohradský Pivovar wrote on Facebook on Friday. "Thanks to it, we can brew twice as much beer and we continue to brew in Vinohrady too. That means more great beer for everyone!"

The operators of Vinohradský Pivovar chose the location for their new brewery at the site of a former soda factory in Káraný, near Prague, due to the availability of a high-quality water source.

They spent more than CZK 100 million to renovate the premises and acquire new brewing technology, which was manufactured by German brewery maker Kaspar Schulz.

The new brewery will be able to produce 15,000 hectoliters of beer annually, which is twice as much as the original Vinohrady brewery was capable of. The Káraný brewery will focus on producing lagers, with an estimated 9,500 hectoliters of beer set to be produced over the rest of the year.

Managing Director Dan Hojdar told reporters that the brewery in Vinohrady could no longer meet the growing demand, but that the owners had no ambition to be an industrial producer. Instead, they wanted to maintain their status as a craft brewery.

The renovation of the new brewery took about a year and a half after the site was acquired in 2020, and the first batch of beer was brewed last April. Thanks to modern technology, the brewery uses about four liters of water per liter of beer, significantly less than breweries that use up to ten liters of water to produce one liter of beer.

Vinohradský Pivovar focuses on producing pilsner-type lagers and top-fermented beers. According to Hojdar, the company is expected to report a loss for last year due to higher energy costs, which were roughly five times higher than normal.

With the planned increase in production, the company intends to focus more on the foreign market. Locals are already able to visit the new brewery and sample its pours as of this weekend; more info about the new brewery can be found at the Vinohradský Pivovar website.