Bernard Sváteční Ležák

Beer sellers: Zlý Časy / Pivkupectví
Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 5%
Origin: Humpolec, Vysočina, Czech Republic
Website: www.bernard.cz

Bernard Sváteční Ležák

The Bernard brewery, in the hill country between Bohemia and Moravia, traces its history to 1597 but its current reputation is strictly post-Velvet Revolution. In 1991 a team led by Stanislav Bernard bought the small, neglected and bankrupt brewery at auction and set about turning it into an example of the best kind of traditional Czech brewing practice. Expansion followed in 2001 thanks to a 50% investment from Belgian ‘new national’ brewer Duvel-Moortgat.

Crucial to the regenerated brewery’s success has been an early decision to produce only unpasteurised beer, using top quality malt and whole hops. This beer, one of the best of a very strong range, goes one stage further in being unfiltered and bottle conditioned too.

It’s a lightly hazy golden beer with a just off-white head and a fresh, fecund, lightly honeyed, malty aroma with a splash of lemon. A beautifully full, fresh and juicy palate has firm cereal notes, straw and an initially gentle burr of balancing hops which becomes quite bitter and citric in the mouth. A chewy, lightly resiny finish turns lightly peppery, but wonderfully offset by fresh fine malt. A classic.

Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/bernard-svate269ni-lezak/26766/