Czech Dark Lager
Czech dark lager, tmavé pivo: a rich, dark, malty lager with caramel, toast and a touch of roast, the one beer of Prague's U Fleků. Strength, bitterness, colour and classic examples.
A Czech dark lager pours dark copper to almost black, often with a red or garnet glint, clear, under a large off-white to tan head. Rich malt fills the glass: bread crust, toast, nuts and caramel, sometimes cola, dark fruit or liquorice. Roast, as chocolate or sweetened coffee, ranges from none to moderate and never takes over. A spicy hop flavour and a bitterness you can feel keep it from turning heavy. It is smooth and a little creamy, with gentle carbonation.
Where it comes from
The best-known version comes from U Fleků in Prague. The house’s first written record dates from 1499, when the maltster Vít Skřemenec bought it, and the brewery says beer has been brewed there without a break for more than 500 years. It makes one beer, a dark 13° lager, and pours it only in its own beer hall. The Brtník family, who owned it before the Communist government nationalised it, got it back in 1991.
The style covers the tmavý ležák at 11–12.9 degrees Plato and the stronger tmavé speciální pivo at 13–14.9. Traditional versions taste sweeter, with bitterness around 18–20 IBU; modern ones run drier and more bitter. Brewers use Pilsner malt and dark caramel malts, most often with debittered roasted malt, and soft water, Czech hops and Czech lager yeast. Many of the new small Czech breweries brew one.
Next to its neighbours
It sits between a Munich Dunkel and a Schwarzbier, and usually tastes richer in malt and more hoppy, in aroma, flavour and bitterness, than either.
Czech Dark Lager in numbers
- Classic examples
- U Fleků, Budweiser Budvar, Bernard, Primátor, Svijany, Bohemia Regent, Břevnov Monastery Brewery
- Original gravity
- 1.044–1.060
- Final gravity
- 1.013–1.017
- Czech names
- tmavý ležák (11–12.9 °P); tmavé speciální pivo (13–14.9 °P)
- Classic examples
- U Fleků Flekovský tmavý 13° ležák; Budvar tmavý ležák; Bernard černý ležák 12°; Herold tmavé silné pivo 13°; Kozel Dark; Krušovice černé; Primátor dark lager
- BJCP style
- 3D Czech Dark Lager
Sources
Checked .
- 3D. Czech Dark Lager, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
- Historie U Fleků — Pivovar a restaurace U Fleků
- Pivovar U Fleků — Wikipedie
