Tap Handle #134: Staropramen Premium Lager

I really like this tap and I'm not sure why. It's not as pretty as the Czechvar tap, but something about it appeals to me.

Staropramen Brewery was founded in Prague, Czech Republic in 1869. The brewery building was completed and beer first brewed in 1871. The Ostravar Brewery opened in 1898 followed a year later by the Braník brewery; these two breweries would later merge with Staropramen. Due to competition from other Prague breweries, the brand name Staropramen, which translates as “old spring,” was registered in 1911. After the First World War all three breweries saw a period of sustained growth, and by the 1930s Staropramen was the largest brewery in Czechoslovakia. With socialism after the Second World War, all Czechoslovakian breweries were nationalized, including Staropramen.

After socialism ended in 1989, the brewery, along with the Braník and Mesťan breweries, became in 1992 part of the Prague Breweries group, which by 1996 came under control of the Bass company. Bass brought Ostravar into the group in 1997, then in 2000 sold its brewing operations to Interbrew, which merged with AmBev in 2004 to form Inbev. Staropramen has seen steady growth and is currently the Czech Republic's second largest beer producer with a 15.3 % share of the domestic market. In mid October 2009, private equity fund CVC Capital Partners bought all of Anheuser–Busch InBev's holdings in Central Europe (including Staropramen). They renamed the operations StarBev. Its products are exported to 37 countries across the globe, mostly in Europe and North America.

The brewery's flagship product is Staropramen, a bohemian pilsener, pale gold in color with a flowery aroma and a hop crispness balanced by a malty softness. Weighted average on ratebeer.com is 2.89 out of 5.

Staropramen Official English Website