Reality Czech

Beer sales in the UK have fallen a further eight per cent between July and September. What can brewers do to stop this slide?

The best thing any brewer anywhere in the world can do to stimulate sales is to concentrate on brewing the finest beers he can. He has to resist cutting corners, using cheaper raw materials or tinkering with fermentation times. That way, he will brew something that people want to drink and will be happy to pay for.

I realise mine is a solution easy to talk about but tough and complicated to realise, but professionals are supposed to be able to meet challenges like that.

On the other hand, microbreweries are enjoying some success…​

Microbreweries are enjoying a considerable vogue, and some of them are brewing first-class products. In my opinion, along with regional craft breweries they represent the future of beer in not just the Czech Republic but Europe.

The day of the international brands, or should I say "blands", is over in this mature European marketplace.

Budvar, which is owned by the Czech state and not by any of the international beer groups, can be counted among the chosen. It is, after all, brewed by a provincial Czech brewery that has been described as "the biggest micro-brewery in the world". For me, that is a compliment.

This year you were a judge at the Great British Beer Festival. What did you take from your experience?​

I was honoured to be invited and at the same time was aware that the invite marked a milestone in the understanding between Europe's craft brewers of lager-conditioned beer and the UK's independent brewers of great cask ales.

We have more in common than with the international brands that claim to brew lager. What impressed me most was the realisation of everybody involved that we were preserving and growing a shared heritage, despite the difference in the styles.

What did you think of the beer? Did you have a favourite?​

I have to confess that, although I have tasted many fine beers, I am still completely wedded to the Czech style. I think my palate is attuned to cask ale, however, as my choices at the GBBF were in line, I discovered after the judging, with those of the other judges.

The Czechs drink more beer per head than any other country. Is this ever likely to be threatened by wine or spirits?​

We have always had an indigenous wine and spirits industry. Neither has ever challenged the supremacy of beer and there is no sign of them doing it now despite massively increased imports of both. It is difficult for a foreigner to understand just how central beer is to the whole idea of Czechness. Beer runs through our art, our literature, through our very genes I guess.

It has always been the property of every Czech, never having been perceived as belonging to a particular class - unlike the case in the UK, I think. For this reason your idea of formally matching beer with food comes as a bit of a surprise to us as it comes as naturally to us as breathing.

You are revered as a brewmaster in the Czech Republic in a way that brewers do not generally experience in the UK. Would you find it difficult to work in the UK model? ​

There is a wider cultural difference here between the UK and the rest of Europe, which goes outside the brewing industry.

In Europe, the production person and their talents are valued far more highly, in my opinion.

In the context of the brewing industry, the brewmaster is at the very core of a business which is part art and part science, and his decisions are going to be critical to the success or failure of the enterprise.

This will become more apparent as we continue the move from giant concerns devoted to "shareholder satisfaction" to more and more craft breweries.

After this, you must know my answer to the second part of your question.