Spring 2014
Today I'd like to tell you about how we went on a tour to the brewery where they brew the beer "Velkopopovicky Kozel" known to all Russians.
The tour was called "In the footsteps of Kozel" (po stopách Kozla).
I won't write about historical and technical facts I learned on the tour, since you can learn about that anywhere, for example on Wikipedia. At the end of the article I'll also tell you how to get there, how much it costs.
From Podebrady we traveled about an hour and a half, maybe a bit more. Had to go both by train and by bus.
How to get there from Prague?
Very quickly. You can take bus 363 from metro station "Opatov".
Or you can take a train to "Strančice" station, and from there transfer to a bus that goes right to the brewery. We chose the second way.
I like to check schedules on https://www.seznam.cz/jizdnirady/.
Our target stop is "Velké Popovice, pivovar"
Museum at the brewery
Again, I won't describe the tour in detail, or you'll lose all interest.
The first thing a tourist getting off the bus will see is a stand inviting to visit the museum.
We go to the gates (you can look at them at the very beginning of the article). Right away we see people sitting by a little restaurant, sipping delicious beer. No rush, we'll still get to do that. Looking for the ticket office.
On the way to the ticket office we see trees with huge cones (probably the size of a beer mug, only even wider). Cones are falling, watch your heads :) I wanted to take one as a souvenir, but as soon as I returned from the ticket office - already taken. So don't delay.
By the appointed time (usually you don't have to wait long) you need to come to the ticket office. Tours start from there.
Quite a lot of people gather (but in Czechia this is normal, Czechs really love to go somewhere with families, it's not customary to sit at home on weekends). By the way, you can only go on the tour if you stick an orange paper on yourself in a visible place, which they give out with the ticket.
The tour hasn't even started yet, but it's already beautiful around
The tour starts with a historical overview. They're rarely interesting, the main thing is to remember that Baron Ringhoffer was an important person in the brewery's history
Next you need to go downstairs. By the way, the temperature in the museum rooms varies greatly - somewhere it's very stuffy, somewhere - very cool
Then come historical exhibits - will appeal to lovers of old stuff (which actually has little to do with beer)
Poster history lovers will definitely like it here - almost all are preserved
Then we were shown a short video about beer, with humor. The plant's symbols are everywhere
In the next part of the tour much was told about brewery workers. Actually, there aren't that many of them, most tasks are solved by machines
In the next part was the long-awaited beer tasting. They poured light beer. Quite tasty, no argument. By the way, you had to drink quickly - going to the next room with beer wasn't allowed :) Czechs handled such a task too easily.
Beer is cold, don't get sick. On the right glass is one of the mottos, which translates as "Who can - can". Most of the walls are covered with it :)
Then we looked at how it all works. Not visible in the photo, but work is in full swing. Everything's in motion.
Volumes are gigantic. This is probably not even a hundredth part.
At the end of the tour they showed the goat itself. He's very rowdy, always butting the fence. Looks cute though.
That's where the tour ended. If you want, you can go in and buy souvenirs. The especially lazy can buy everything in the online store.
Restaurant "Kozlovna"
Then everyone went to get something to eat. This isn't shameful, because here everything's quite tasty, and prices don't bite.
Few people eat though. Everyone drinks.
You can order any beer, everything's tasty. From food I recommend ordering something with meat - from experience I'll say, here it's very good. We also unanimously singled out onion rings in batter.
Such an interesting lamp we noticed. By the way, there's no such thing in the souvenir shop, unfortunately.
Velke Popovice
I don't recommend finishing your tour with the restaurant. It's very beautiful around - the brewery is located in the town of Velke Popovice. And you don't have to walk long - you can walk around everything in half an hour.
By the way, a typical local thing - young trees are fenced so they grow straight.
Conclusions
A good tour for a day. Leaving in the morning, you can return home around 5. Interesting not only the brewery itself, but also its surroundings.
In the souvenir shop you can buy souvenirs to take home - many will be pleased to touch what they hear so much about but have never seen.
The local restaurant is a good example of a typical Czech restaurant: noisy, tasty, inexpensive.
The tour can also be combined with a walk around Prague - there's enough time left in the evening.
I don't recommend taking tours in Russian - everything's clear in Czech anyway, they give out sheets with translated information. And the ticket in Russian is more expensive.
Also don't recommend going on the tour through agencies - it was pitiful to see people who were put in a framework - "We have 34 and a half minutes for lunch, then we get on the bus and leave". And the prices are astronomical.
Price
When we went, everything was like this: full ticket costs 100 crowns, student - 60, family - 250.
For a tour in a foreign language you'll have to pay extra 30 crowns each. Tours for schools (yes, schoolchildren and beer) - 40 crowns per student.
Group tickets are even cheaper (and group tickets through agencies are more expensive, that's how it is, draw your own conclusions).
Thus, the trip will fully cost 200 crowns (travel) + 100 crowns (tour) + 200 crowns (very hearty lunch): in total about 20 euros. For us students it was even cheaper - came out to about 370 crowns per person.
Conclusion - don't fall for agency offers, I saw tickets for 35 euros, and that's not the limit.