Prague Bars and Beers Guide

PUBS

While you will find very lively pubs in the centre of Prague, they are really tourist traps, where you may end up paying up to £2/$3 for a large beer (a large beer is half a litre or about a pint, a small beer is a third of a litre). In the suburbs, however, a large beer is sold for 30p/45c. Here, the pubs and their customers are much more interesting than in the town centre. You can play cards or darts here, meet with the regulars and experience real greasy Czech food. The only problem is that these places are very locality-based - each couple of blocks has its own pub and regulars, and to mix in you really need to be accompanied by one of our guides.

BEER

Normally beers are about 5% alcohol and come mainly in 3 grades. The light beer or 10 degree (desitku in Czech) are the most commonly drunk beers. Always watch out in a pub, as most of the lower-class pubs offer these as their main beer. The 11 degree beers are usually dark beers. They are commonly offered in pubs as well. Both 10 and 11 degree beers are more common as tap beers than bottled beers. 12 grade beers are the standard lagers - they come in bottles most of the time, even though better pubs offer them on tap as well. A very popular combination is a mix of the 10 and 11 grade beers, called "rezane" (cut) beer. Unlike black and tan beers, in this case the beers are mixed, not layered.