Czech this out

Webster started to visit the places that were serving his beer and he discovered that the brewery’s iconic IPA Jaipur was even being poured at a bar owned by Budvar MD’s Jitka Vlckova’s family. 

It was also on this trip that he realised how strong Czech beer culture was and how it could nicely dovetail with British beer. “I remember visiting a small microbrewery,” Simon tells me, “and they had a small house next to it. I saw the grandma come out at 10am, take some beer from the tank and then go back in to do the ironing.

“We went to a restaurant in Prague and no one was drinking wine. Everyone was drinking beer.”

Simon found that through a mutual friend, there was a joint admiration of each other’s beers – with the Budvar brewers liking (guess what?) Jaipur – and baby steps around 2019 took place to brew a beer together. 

Unfortunately the pandemic kiboshed the plans until Budvar persisted and reached out again to Thornbridge. The determination, it’s claimed, wasn’t financial but intended to show international drinkers how good Budvar – and Czech lager more generally – really is.

“We act as an ambassador for the Czech people,” says Rich Sanna, commercial director at Budvar. “It’s good to work with good people, or people who are passionate about what they do. The similarities we have with Thornbridge are they are independent and they’ve got a big focus on quality.”

Budvar didn’t view working with Thornbridge as an ad-hoc collaboration, which smaller breweries regularly do, but more of a partnership with a craft beer trailblazer. “They changed the craft beer market,” says Radim Zvanovec​​​​, global brand ambassador at Budvar, “through being innovative.”

In November 2022, Thornbridge visited the Czech Republic to learn how Budvar brewed – a process which Webster describes as “incredible” – meeting brewmasters old and new, and even tasting fresh hop beer experiments straight from the tank. 

It was the quality control, though, that really surprised Simon because he previously didn’t think such perfection could be achieved at such a grand size. “In this country,” Simon says, “we associate [large breweries] as not caring as much about the beer. They [Budvar] really do.”

The same experience was mirrored when Budvar visited Thornbridge in Derbyshire with the Czech brewers falling hard for cask and discovering Lord Marples, a classic sessionable bitter, and the first beer Thornbridge ever brewed.

They also came into contact with heritage malts, such as Maris Otter, and others that were more familiar, such as Simpsons T50, which is used in Budvar 33 (a pilsner only available in Czech and Slovak markets), which then had to be used in Czech Mates. 

“We’ve never brewed with British hops before,” says Radim ​​​​. “When we rubbed East Kent Goldings they were quite similar to noble hops from continental Europe.”

The philosophy of the beer was then realised at this visit; it would be British ingredients with a Czech approach centred around Budvar’s heritage yeast strain. Even the soft Bakewell water was very similar to the České Budějovice’s, where Budvar is brewed. “I was surprised at how well it went,” admits Zvanovec​​​​.

The similarities may have been unexpected by Zvanovec​​​​ but he was thrilled to discover the differences, especially how Thornbridge’s beers were dispensed, saying they were blown away by beer engines and how cask is conditioned. It was in this sense that it was like a traditional collab, in that both parties were learning, especially as Thornbridge had never undertaken decoction before.

“When we came over for brew day,” says Radim, “it took us a couple of hours to explain to them [decoction] with the right diagram.”

The first batch was a success – it was even pre-sold before it went to the lagering tank – and Budvar saw first-hand the “stir” it had created in the beer community. “The people who loved it,” says Rich Sanna​​​​, “became our ambassadors without even meaning to be.”  

For Thornbridge, working with a Czech-owned brewery had other huge advantages with a large marketing push (from Czech government funding) realising a stand-out can design and high quality promotional material including video produced with a 12-strong film crew.

“Normally our video is made with someone holding a phone,” says Simon. 

It also meant that when Czech Mates was launched, large events could be held where Zvanovec​​​​ could dispense the beers himself with milk pours, which suited a Northern brewery where its drinkers don’t fear the foam. 

But if the beer wasn’t a superb lager, then it wouldn’t be a collab of note. The painstaking work was, of course, realised, and the lager is a perfectly balanced mix of bready, subtle floral notes (from the Goldings hops) and slight toffee aroma (the Simpsons’ T50 malt).

It even wowed the most discerning of lager critics. Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, who has recently worked on another collaboration with Thornbridge, this time an African Fonio Pale Ale.

Oliver believes that Thornbridge was always an obvious partner for Budvar. “They [Thornbridge] have a can-do attitude,” he tells me. “Married to enviable technical skills and a real spark of creativity. 

“And in their true hearts, every great brewer wants to make pilsner, even if they love cask ale too. The fact that the same brewers are making Czech Mates and brewing on the Burton (now Thornbridge) unions tells you everything you need to know.”

As their collabs show Thornbridge is, perhaps, the best brewery in the UK to work with and it’s a good way for an excellent but omnipresent craft label to grab drinkers who may have forgotten how good their brewing is. 

Brews, such as Czech Mates, allow Thornbridge to experiment but also to show new drinkers, especially supermarket shoppers, just how good British – and Czech – beer can be when quality and innovation come together.