Beer Business: Czech Republic

Czech Business Weekly has an interesting interview with Jan Šuráň, one of the owners of a microbrewery, Privo Praha, located in Prague. I don't know the brewery, obviously, but I find the subject of microbreweries in the Czech Republic very fascinating. For a long time, the Czech Republic has been seen as the "Beer Nation," boasting the largest beer consumption per capita in the world. Having this reputation, I was surprised to find out how narrow the Czech beer market really is:

The Czech Republic is very conservative in innovations and in the market. Of the beer produced here, 95 percent is light lager. We’re lucky that the Czech lager is appreciated in the world. As for Czech lager, we bring innovations to the world but we practically don’t accept anything [new]. Some Czechs know [Irish dark beer] Guinness, and Kelt and Velvet were popular in the beginning when Staropramen began producing them, but their popularity dropped and now they have a stable position. People try a new beer but then quickly go back to a favorite brand. Maybe it will be different with the new generation if we teach them how to experiment.

95% light lager? I had always thought the Czech beer selection at the liquor store was a little lacking in variety, but I had no idea it was 95% light lager. It's good to know that someone is taking a chance with this market, however. As Privo Praha has a set of eight constantly produced beers, "light, dark, wheat, banana, wild-cherry, coffee, nettle and Šamp." Šamp, apparently, is a "beer sparkling wine." Sounds fascinating, but will it catch on? Šuráň predicts that in the next 10 years, the microbreweries will outnumber the commercial breweries 60 to 48.

I imagine that people starting up microbreweries, especially in a place so inundated with large, apparently lager-centric, commercial breweries, imagine themselves to be artists, rebels in a stale market. Or something like that. For those entering the microbrewery market, he gives them this advice:

Early microbrewery entrepreneurs focused on how to produce beer, but they should have focused on how to generate a return on their investment. They must have a clear strategy of how to sell their beer. It’s important to make quality beer, but if there are 10 pubs selling [mass-produced] Pilsner-type beer near them, they have to come up with something original. A quality restaurant with quality food and a good marketing plan are crucial. They should also be in contact with travel agencies to secure customers.

Proving, once again, that it's not always about what's in the drink, but how you promote it. And, yes, hook up with travel agencies so that if I ever go over to the Czech Republic, I know where to get a great, unique beer.

Also worth reading is his take on American beer and American microbreweries:

The United States is becoming a beer nation, with 90 percent of the population drinking whatever beer, usually ice-cold, from a can. But with the huge consolidation of the market that began there 30 years ago, people started to brew their own beer at home. They knew from their European descendants that beer should taste different than [popular U.S. brands] Bud Light, Coors or Miller, which are all the same yellow water with only a bit of alcohol.

The market accepted microbreweries as something unique and with the escalating number of microbreweries they now account for some 8 percent of the market share. It even reached an extreme stage where some beers have such a distinctive taste they’re almost undrinkable, as is the case with some superstrong beers.

I think Avery's Samael applies to that last sentence.

Brewer Banks on Experimentation