Region & History

Eastern Bohemia, the land between the Elbe and the Giant Mountains, isn't famous for Pilsner. Instead, breweries here have gone their own way in the shadow of Pilsen and Budweis: a black porter in Pardubice, a wheat beer in Náchod, and a dark beer in Trutnov.

Brewing here predates the factories. Trutnov, known in German as Trautenau, was granted brewing rights in 1260, according to the brewery. At first, each licensed house brewed in turn, until the citizens joined forces in a shared brewery in 1582. Today it's called Pivovar Krakonoš, named after the mountain spirit the Germans call Rübezahl.

In Pardubice, the Moravian nobleman Vilém z Pernštejna bought the town in 1491 and, according to tradition, introduced brewing about ten years later. The present-day brewery set its first brew on April 8, 1871. Its Pernštejn brand recalls the noble house that once shaped the town.

In Náchod, a malt house is already mentioned in 1448. The Primátor brewery was founded in 1872, and a year later the first 17 brews rolled off the kettle at 10 and 11 degrees. The degree refers to the original gravity, meaning the proportion of dissolved substances in the wort before fermentation.

In the south of the region, in Humpolec on the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, stands the Bernard brewery. It traces its roots to 1597 and was bought at auction in 1991 by Stanislav Bernard, Josef Vávra, and Rudolf Šmejkal. Half the shares are now held by the Belgian brewery Duvel Moortgat.

Eastern Bohemia has no EU protected designation of its own. Neither Pardubický porter nor Krakonoš or Primátor appear in the register of protected beer names. So if you're drinking this beer, you're relying on the brewery and its recipe, not on a rule of origin.