Tempus fugit, amigos: Beer Culture has been live for eleven and a half weeks and we’re now serving 6,500 page views per month, spreading the word about beer culture in the Czech Republic and Central Europe to 65 countries so far. As a means of promoting Czech brewing and saying thanks, we’re announcing a big beer-themed giveaway, by which we mean a reader contest.

But first, it is time for haiku.

That is to say the art form known as beer haiku. I first encountered the beast on the beermats (above) created by David Wheatley for the excellent Whalebone brewpub up in Hull. David is a friend, so when the mats were published he sent along a set; the poems were also included in his latest collection, Mocker. A favorite:

A pub is a boat.
It sails on froth. Each pint pulled
helps keep it afloat.

As it turns out, beer and haiku go along so well that some people even write beer haiku daily. Thus, our first reader contest: write a haiku with a beer theme and send it to the email address of Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic (also known as GBGPrague@gmail.com). If it’s good enough, your entry could win one of the excellent prizes donated by some of our favorite Czech breweries and pubs, including shirts, glassware and more.

Herewith the rules.

• Entries must follow the traditional form of haiku in the West: seventeen syllables total, written in three lines with a first line of five syllables, a second line of seven syllables and a third line of five syllables.

• The haiku must have a beer or pub theme.

• It is not necessary to rhyme the first and third lines. (However, nicely rhymed entries will receive extra credit.)

• The first well-rhymed entry automatically wins a prize.

• The entry with the most remote mailing address (i.e., greatest distance from Prague) automatically wins a prize.

• Just as with the ratings of the beers in Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic, the haiku will be judged with a dash of our own subjective, capricious whimsy.

• Haiku may be submitted in English, Czech, Slovak, French or German.

• By entering, you agree to let us publish your haiku and your name on Beer Culture.

• Entries will be accepted through March 31.

That’s just about it. We’re still receiving more prizes from donors, so we can’t give you a complete list of what you can pick up yet. But here’s what we’ve got so far:

A polo shirt from Prague’s newest brewpub, Pivovar Bašta!

A polo shirt from Budweiser Budvar!

A mouse pad from Budweiser Budvar!

A bottle opener from Budweiser Budvar that goes “Yeahhh!” when you open your bottle!

A bar of beer soap!

Bottles of beer shampoo and beer shower gel!

A copy of Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic!

More prizes are forthcoming; we’ll announce them here as we receive them. For now, all you have to do is turn over a beermat the next time you’re in the pub, work up a decent haiku (5-7-5) between pints and email that little guy in to GBGPrague@gmail.com. For example, something like:

It is not so hard
to write a beery haiku—
pivo fills my heart.

We’ll be announcing the winners and the prizes in new posts throughout the month of March, so stay tuned and be sure to tell your friends, as we’ve honestly got more prizes coming in than we know what to do with. When you think about it, a decent haiku is a small price to pay for a Budweiser Budvar bottle opener — especially one that goes “Yeahhh!”

Prague is not in bad shape for beer, not by any means. Not only do we have U sadu, U kláštera and a few hundred other great pubs in town, but we also have about a dozen outstanding local beers, including one brewed by college students. Last month we had the Christmas Beer Markets to keep us warm. And now we’ve got a brand new brewpub in Praha 4-Nusle: Pivovar Bašta.

Also known as Sousedský pivovar U Bansethů (something like “neighborhood brewery U Bansethů”), Bašta sits just across from the nuselská radnice, next door to the old U Bansethů pub, a neighborhood stalwart for a century or so and a good source for Pilsner Urquell.

If you board an 18 tram or 193 bus at metro station Pražského povstání (C line), Bašta is just a few minutes away, right at the Nuselská radnice stop. Or if you take a 6 or 11 tram from metro station I.P. Pavlova (C line), you can get off at Náměstí bratří Synků and Bašta is less than 5 minutes away by foot. Alternately, you can catch the 18 tram at metro station Karlovo náměstí (B line) and take that to Nuselská radnice, which should take about 12 minutes. From the outside, it looks like this:

Inside, the atmosphere is classic hospoda, with traditional wood paneling rising halfway up the walls and lots of hooks for coats and caps. The menu board lists sadlo, grundle and other typical Czech pub treats, as well as four regular beers: pšeničné (wheat), světlý speciál (light special), tmavý speciál (dark special) and polotmavý speciál (half-dark special). But perhaps because Bašta just opened, supplies seem to be mysteriously limited.

On my first visit, only the polotmavý was available, a cloudy amber with a thick-set creamy head (pictured at the top of the page). Brewed at 12.5° Balling, it ends up with about 5% alcohol by volume. When I tasted it, it had a lovely nose that reminded me of a great single-malt — the roasted barley of the whisky, if not its alcohol. In the mouth it was almost chewy in its richness, with a strong caramel note, and the finish was a fair bit hoppier than I expected.

On a second visit, other beers were available. Remembering that he’d only had one beer the first time, the waiter made a point of telling me they now had the pšeničné and the světlý speciál. And then, a minute later, when I tried to order them, he said that they’d just run out again.

However, there was still something the waiter called a Bavorská třináctka (or Bavarian thirteen, apparently brewed at 13° and ending up with around 5.5% alcohol). In the dim light of the pub, the Bavorská was virtually indistinguishable from the polotmavý speciál.

At least in appearance. In flavor, it had much more malt sweetness, especially in the finish, and far less bitterness. It reminded me of a few beers in Bamberg, like the lovely Ungespundetes (or “U”) at Brauerei Spezial and the Ungespundet-hefetrüb at Mahr’s. Bašta’s polotmavý is no slouch, but that Bavorská třináctka was outstanding.

In a nod to the neighborhood (not one of Prague’s priciest), beers here are inexpensive, only 25 Kč per half-liter. In Prague, I’m generally comfortable spending up to about 37 Kč before I feel like I’m getting clipped (though I do regularly drop 49 Kč on the lovely Oldgott at U Medvídků, but that’s another story). At 25 Kč, I almost feel like I can’t afford not to have another, especially when they taste this good.

Pivovar Bašta
Táborská 49
140 00 Praha 4–Nusle
(tram 18 or Bus 193 to station Nuselská radnice, or tram 6 or 11 to station Náměstí bratří Synků)
Tel.: +420 261 222 530
www.ubansethu.cz

Pivovar Bašta is only the first of two new brewpubs opening in Prague, to catch us up with the other new brewpubs and breweries set to appear elsewhere in the Czech Republic. If you like good beer, I’d recommend visiting as soon as possible. A word of warning: I was told Bašta only opens after 3 p.m., so check the hours before you head out. And if the waiter says they have the pšeničné and the světlý speciál, order both of them immediately.