Březnický ležák

Appearance & taste

Březnický ležák is a lightly to moderately fermented, full-bodied beer of golden-yellow colour. It has a fine but distinct bitterness, a sparkling freshness and a clean hop aroma without off-notes. The alcohol content is 4.69 to 5.53 % vol., the original wort 11.00 to 12.99 %.

Production

The ingredients are malt from brewing barley, hop pellets of the Saaz semi-early red-bine variety, hop extract, beet sugar, water from artesian wells and boreholes in the municipality of Březnice, brewer’s yeast and ascorbic acid. The malt is bought in or made in the brewery in the classic way: 72 hours of steeping, 6 to 7 days of germination and twice 24 hours of kilning at 25 to 85 °C.

In the brewhouse with two mash tuns, mashing takes eight to nine hours using the double decoction method. The wort is boiled for 90 to 120 minutes, and hops and sugar are added in three stages. After the hot trub has been removed, it is cooled to 6 to 9 °C and ferments for 7 to 9 days in open vats at 6 to 11.5 °C with bottom-fermenting yeast. Secondary fermentation takes 45 to 70 days in closed lagering tanks at 2 to 4 °C. The beer is then filtered twice, filled into bottles or kegs and pasteurised. Everything up to filtration must happen in Březnice; bottling may also take place elsewhere.

Origin & history

The area is the municipality of Březnice. The wells are 14 to 16 m deep, the boreholes 37.5 and 61 m; they lie in the granodiorite of the Central Bohemian Pluton and are fed by fissure water. According to the specification, the taste of the beer also depends on the composition of this water.

The brewery in Březnice is first mentioned in writing in 1506. In the 18th century a new brewery was built in the Baroque style, which passed into the ownership of Czechoslovakia in 1945. It grew strongly with uranium mining around 1960 and was close to closing when mining declined. In 1989 the Czech Research Institute of Brewing and Malting took over the business, rebuilt the brewery and resumed production of the traditional beer. The name was entered in the register of appellations of origin of the Czech Republic on 2 April 1984.