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!”

The Czech lands have given the world the original Pilsner, the original Budweiser and many other significant firsts in the world of beer and brewing. Now a Czech company has started a line of health and beauty products made with beer, including beer shampoo, beer shower gel and beer soap.

Called Czech Beer Cosmetics, the beer beauty goods come from Manufaktura, a Prague-based firm known for its traditional wooden toys and tools, as well as bath salts, lotions and soaps. Introduced last fall, Czech Beer Cosmetics have quickly become one of the company’s top sellers.

“It’s probably our most popular product,” said a shop assistant at one Prague outlet. “Both with foreigners and with Czechs.”

Beer is very good for hair and skin, she added, because it contains vitamin B2, which is known to play an important role in the growth and repair of hair, skin and nails. A few folk beauty treatments include shampooing with beer, and some people have even been known to enjoy a beer bath.

In fact, I’ve enjoyed a beer bath myself. I’ve actually taken two baths in beer, the first at Landhotel Moorhof in Austria and an even better one at the Czech Chodovar brewery when I was researching Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic. Of course, I’ve also had beers poured on my head and dumped in my lap in pubs, and many times I’ve attempted to wash away my sins in a steady stream of lager. Perhaps more importantly, I have also occasionally been known to use soap.

So I picked up a bottle (resembling a tallboy, very cute) of Beer Shampoo and Beer Shower Gel, as well as a bar of Manufaktura’s Beer Soap, and took them home for a standard evaluation and rating.

Beer Shampoo. Pours a clear deep gold with no visible carbonation and a loose, chalky foam. The nose includes welcoming notes of ginger, sweet vanilla and bright citrus. Although beer is listed as the third ingredient after water and sodium laureth sulfate, it has an unpleasant mouthfeel and flavor. The finish is dry with the lasting scent of rich malt. Overall, a good shampoo in the classic Bohemian Pilsner style. 4.5 out of 5.

Beer Shower Gel. Clear amber with a thick, creamy foam and again, no visible carbonation. The nose hints of honey and wildflowers, including linden and clover. Beer is again the third ingredient but by now I am unwilling to judge mouthfeel or flavor. Body is smooth and clean with a lasting light spicy fragrance akin to a saison or a pale bière de garde. 4 out of 5.

Beer Soap. Cloudy amber with many visible particulates and a yeasty nose. On the skin, hints of malt and freshly baked bread rinsing to a clean, even finish. Overall 3.7 out of 5 (4.2 for style).

If you’re in Prague and you want to pick up your own beer soap and shampoo, there’s a Manufaktura kiosk in the bottom floor of Tesco (closest to the entrance on Národní), as well as the main store at Melantrichova 17 (near metro Můstek) and of course Manufaktura’s online shop.

Or just stay tuned to Beer Culture, as next month we’ll give away Czech Beer Cosmetics in our very first reader contest. Sure, maybe we can’t send you to Prague’s newest brewpub. Maybe we can’t send you on a to-die-for brewery tour of Moravian Silesia. But a bar of beer soap? Klidně.