Exclusive tour of Pilsner Urquell Brewery: Visiting the cellars where Pilsner’s journey began
The Pilsner Urquell brewery is the most visited destination in West Bohemia and one of the top 15 attractions in Czechia. On a typical day, it hosts around 40 guided tours in multiple languages, including Czech, German, and English.
On this special occasion, a new exhibition opened that guides visitors through what it takes to make Pilsner beer. My colleague, Kristina Kellnerová, and I were lucky enough to get a hold of Craft and Heritage Director Rudolf Šlehofer at Pilsner Urquell to walk us through this staple of Czech culture and the newly opened exhibition.
Rudolf Šlehofer: “We have three breweries in the Czech Republic. Pilsner Urquell is produced just here in Plzeň and has been for 182 years. Other brands like Kozel, Gambrinus, and Radegast are produced at our other breweries here as well.
“I’ve probably forgotten a few because we have plenty of brands. By the way, this is the largest elevator in the Czech Republic. It holds 72 people. Let’s begin the tour.
“This part of the tour is new, even for me. The exhibition opened just one week ago. Here, we introduce the ingredients we use to brew our beer: barley, water, hops, and yeast. If you have these, you have everything to produce the beer, of course along with the skill of many capable people who bring it all to life.
“Here on the big screen presents the ingredients in a natural, visual way. Barley is one of the most essential components.
“Next, we introduce here the process of malting, where barley is transformed into malt, the basic ingredient for beer production. Visitors can touch and see what malt looks like when it's ready.
“Water is also important. We’re lucky here in Plzeň because we have soft water; we pump it from our own wells 100 meters deep. The only treatment needed is de-ironization, as iron doesn’t mix well with hops. We also use a special quality measurement, mainly fish. 30 fish are kept in a pool to act as a natural water monitoring system.
“The next ingredient is the hops. Our hops come from the Saaz region, high quality and very important. Many visitors from abroad don’t know what hops actually look like, so we show them the actual flowers used in brewing. While some breweries use hop cones [speaker says “beans,” used as a nickname for the tool], we use pellets. The pellets are just ground and dried hops; nothing is added or removed. They let us easily control the amount of hops in each batch. Visitors can see and smell them here. They smell a bit like lemon.”
Brewhouse
“Now we go to the brewhouse.
“We actually show visitors both the historical and the modern brewhouse. We're now in the historical one. It features copper vessels with direct heating and copper bottoms. Though we no longer brew beer here until 2004. We brewed in this room for over 70 years.
“Here you can look inside. The copper-bottomed vessels and the direct heating below them contribute to the unique final taste. Even today, we brew the beer in the same way as in 1842, when Pilsner Urquell was brewed for the first time. We still mature it in oak barrels in the old cellars and regularly compare it with standard production beer to ensure the taste remains consistent. We work hard to preserve this traditional way.”
Kristina: Is it the best beer in the world?
“Yes but I was born in Plzeň, so it’s easy to say. [laughs]
“Honestly, in the Czech Republic today, it’s hard to find bad beer.
“Let’s move on to the modern brewhouse.”
Jakub: You can immediately smell it.
“Yes. This is the only place in the world where Pilsner Urquell is brewed. If you buy a bottle in London, New York, or Tokyo, it was brewed here.
“While the layout looks slightly different, the principle and technology are the same. In the first kettles, we mix the malt with water. In the last kettle, we add hops and boil the mixture. We brew every day and produce nearly 2.9 million beers daily in this brewhouse. Every day.
“In Czech beer standards, that’s about 0.5-liter servings. If we convert that into standard international serving sizes, it’s around 4.3 million servings daily.
“From a visitor’s perspective, it’s a safe environment. The brewery is just one hour from Prague by train and offers a safe and enjoyable experience. Visitors can spend hours here. We have restaurants, several tours, a brewing museum downtown, and a historical underground tour, even larger than the cellars here.”
How the technology changed
“We also show how technology has changed. One of the first kettles we used was open-topped. We now use covered copper kettles, but the early ones were much simpler. We display portraits of the most important brewmasters, including Mr. Josef Groll, the man who invented Pilsner Urquell and brought it to the world.
“These photos show wooden barrels. We have the last team of brewery coopers, at least in Europe. They still make maturation and lagering barrels and also create transport barrels. We use them not only for tradition but for quality control. Of course, it’s a tourist attraction too.
“Now we go to the cellars.”
Brewery cellars
“So, it’s the oldest part of the brewery.
“We have nine kilometers of cellars. Be careful! It can be wet and slippery. After about 70 minutes on the tour, this is where visitors get to taste Pilsner Urquell in its most authentic form. The beer served here is not available anywhere else. It matures in oak barrels made on-site. What we brew here, we drink here.
“For comparison, our main brewery in Plzeň produces over 5 million hectoliters of beer annually. In the cellars, we make only 1,000 hectoliters, exclusively for tasting.
“Okay, safety instructions. This is a map of the cellars. Please memorize it. And if you get lost, shout loudly.”
Jakub: How old would these halls be?
“[The cellars] date back to 1839. It took 50 years to finish what you see here. This is traditional fermentation in open fermenters. We brew the beer upstairs, pump it down, add yeast, and ferment it over 10 days. Each day, the temperature rises by 0.5°C. After fermentation, we transfer it to the maturation barrels. Five weeks later, we have our finished Pilsner Urquell, exactly as it was in 1842.
“What you see at the end of the fermentation process is a fresh beer with a rich, cloud-like foam. Now, it’s time to taste.
“This is the spot where everyone takes photos. These barrels were made by our coopers. We still maintain this craft because without it, we can’t produce beer the traditional way. Let’s go get some beer.”
Jakub and Kristina: Thank you. Cheers. [sip beer]
“Compared to standard beer, this has less CO2. It’s unfiltered and unpasteurized. You can taste a bit more sweetness. It’s unique and only available here. You can drink Pilsner Urquell throughout the Czech Republic, but this version, matured in oak barrels, is served only in the cellars. It’s never sold elsewhere.”
Jakub: What’s the exact reason? It can’t just be because of tourists.
“For two reasons: tourism and quality control.
“Maintaining the traditional craft is vital. Our coopers are listed as part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Czech Republic. These barrels weigh around 800 kilos. If we don’t maintain this tradition, we lose it. There are many coopers globally who make whiskey and wine barrels, but these are different; they must hold pressure and endure repeated use.
“This tradition is a core part of what makes Pilsner Urquell special. We use it to verify that our modern production matches the original taste. Experienced and retired brewmasters visit two to three times per year to test for consistency.”
Jakub: You do notice the difference but also the similarity.
“It’s the same beer. The environment contributes to the sweetness, but the flavor profile is still authentic.”
After exiting the cellars, our tour brought us to the gift store located just outside the exit where you can purchase merchandise as well as, you guessed it, more beer. And who wouldn’t want a reminder of this guilty pleasure?
And if that isn’t enough for you, our tour guide pointed to some other options for visitors after finishing the tour:
“Beyond this main brewery tour, we offer more experiences, including tours at the Gambrinus and Elektrárna experimental breweries. In downtown Plzeň, we also run the Brewing Museum and Historical Underground. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the underground opening. We've prepared a special tour that includes the most recently opened section, discovered later but now accessible to the public.”
And with that our tour with my colleague Kristina comes to an end. We tasted unique beer that will stay with us for some time, at least until our next visit. And that visit will have to come soon since we can’t get enough of this classic Czech staple.
