Pilsner Museum and Brewery

Our tour of Pilsen continued with a tour of the museum, which was located in the city center. It was designed to give visitors a feel for the way the town operated before the big brewery opened when resident craftsman had their own breweries in their homes.

The museum is housed in a well-preserved building. We were able to get a feel not only for the dated brewing practices but also a better understanding of the way of life just from seeing the architectural design of the homes.

Hops Wreath

Look, I took a photo of a ghost! This is the cellar where the barreled fermenting beer stayed cold.

Duchamp?

The old city wall, with crops grown by the museum. The barley had already been harvested, hops were growing against the far wall.

We were told a charming anecdote by our tour guide. When the Hussites tried to siege the town in the first half of the 15th century, the townspeople were able to hold out for months. Most houses had wells in the basement as well as secret tunnels for the townspeople to sneak in and out. Upon the realization that he would not be able to starve the people out, the leader Prokop the Great traveled East and brought back a camel in an attempt to scare the people into submission. Though some wanted to surrender, the educated of the town used their reference books and realized the camel was not such a strange creature after all. The next morning Prokop awoke to find the camel looking down at him from the city wall. Hence, the coat of arms of Pilsen includes a camel. 

Close up of hops

Brewer's Coat of Arms

From the museum we walked outside of the city center to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. It was enormous and very fancy; we learned the entire process of brewing although I still don't exactly understand it. Fortunately, we were provided with a flow chart:

Sorry it's sideways, blogger is having trouble loading the picture normally.

An interactive section explaining the importance of the ingredients that Pilsner uses: barley, fresh and extremely filtered water, and local hops.

Taps so the beer can be tasted throughout the process.

Huge copper kettles where the mixture is boiled three times-- allegedly what makes Pilsner Urquell unique

I believe these are the fermenting tanks

A labyrinthine cellar where the barreled beer is stored. Six miles of long dark hallways where one could easily get lost.

We were given samples of unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner right from the barrel. Definitely the best PU I've ever had (and ever will have) in my life.