Beer Bloggers Conference Day1 - Part 2 - A night in Pilsen.

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OK maybe not in Pilsen but it was close enough without being in The Czech Republic.

Before I get on to the Pilsner Urquell party, I just want to finish off with the end of the Molson Coors dinner. Near the end, Steve Wellington from Worthington White Shield announced his retirement. Shortly after we heard from Vaclav Berka, beer in hand from Pilsner Urquell. Valkav is the brewmaster in Pilsen. Valkavs comments about the only thing worse than a thirsty brewmaster was a thirsty blogger went down quite well. We all want the T-Shirt now.

So I am dedicating this first part of the post to Steve Wellington who is a Titan among brewers. Steve will be missed but his passion in bringing back the lost Burton styles of beer using modern day brewing techniques means he will be long remembered among brewers and writers alike. I doubt it's the last we have seen of him though, no doubt he will do some special brews now and again.

At the end of the dinner we received a glass (above) of possibly the longest named beer in history? Turbo Yeast Utter Abhorrence from Beyond the Ninth Level of Hades III. You would expect big things with a name like this.

Well big is what this beer is all about. If I understand it correctly, this beer is 23% making it easily the strongest beer I have ever had. It was fantastic as a digestif. Given a choice between a glass of this, port, sherry or whisky.... I would probably take this.

So thanks again to Molson Coors for their hospitality, and that's just the first day.

Time for Valkav to bring us down to the Pilsner Urquell event.

First we were brought downstairs to what looks like a sort of chapel. There were little white paper like buildings which are recreations of the town of Pilsen. Their meaning was about to become apparent. We were shown the new advertising campaign that Pilsner Urquell is launched.

The day Pilsen struck gold is a fantastic production using stop animation which to my mind is just far superior than if they had done it in CGI. It gives it a warm feeling, much like a Vinyl record gives you over the clinically clean sound of a CD. Sure CD's might have superior sound but there is something warm and fuzzy about a crackling vinyl record.

The production was amazing. I was gobsmacked when I heard how long it took just to do the barley growing sequence. The guys who made the video explained the process. I have great respect for them and their craft especially after seeing this.

Of course we were watching all this with glasses of Pilsner Urquell. Except of course Ann from Hardknott who had filled herself a full tumbler of 23% whatchamacallit upstairs and was almost as bad as Sooty earlier on. One might almost think they are one and the same.....

No danger of a thirsty brewmaster or thirsty blogger here. Valkav is a great guy and loves to talk about beer, especially when he has one in his hand. Not a very flattering photo of myself there I am afraid. I really do look like I enjoy my beer too much. Is that a Beoir T-Shirt I see?

After the presentation we were taken to another room. This was where the actual party would take place. The drink of choice? Well we did not have a choice. There was one beer available and as it turns out, there was not another beer in the world I would rather have been drinking at that moment.

Valkav poured the first glass of Unfiltered Pilsner Urquell from the wooden cask. After that it was top your glass up as you please. There were two casks on the bar at any one time and no one went thirsty because Valkav brought plenty of casks.

The beer was just indescribably good. I like ordinary Pilsner Urquell just fine but this was so smooth, so well balanced and so flavoursome that I tried to work out how I could take a cask and get it home. To be honest I bet if I asked Valkav he might have given me one but there would be no way to get it home to Ireland. I'm no Pete Brown.

Few people will ever get to taste Pilsner Urquell like this. If you are in Prague you can find some pubs with a Tankovna. Alternatively you might get some at the brewery.

What I don't know is if these (what we had) are actual wooden casks, or metal (or some other material) casks covered in wood to make them look pretty. Does the beer come in to contact with the wood is what I want to know? I should have asked Valkav. I vote for the former as it makes me feel special to have tried it.

And that was it for day 1! Yes day 1 of a 3 day event. Saturday was a much longer day with an earlier start and a lot more beer to drink. Too much beer? Well as it turns out......