On Wednesday, November 19, the Sdružení přátel piva held its annual awards ceremony for the greatest beers, breweries, and the best brewmaster in the Czech Republic.

Often rendered in English as the Union of Friends of Beer, the SPP is the Czech beer consumers’ organization, a counterpart to the Campaign for Real Ale and other fellow members of the European Beer Consumers Union, similarly working to promote quality beer and preserve local beer traditions. Though there are many beer awards in the lager-loving Czech Republic, the SPP awards are among the most prestigious and most anticipated such ceremonies on the Czech beer calendar.

The awards, handed out this year inside the cozy beer hall on the Budweiser Budvar brewery grounds, went to the following:

For 10° (desítka) beer of the year — a category of beers of moderate alcohol and the most commonly consumed type of beer in the country — the winners were:

First Place: Moravské Sklepní nefiltrované from Černá Hora
Second place: Pardál světlé výčepní pivo from Budvar
Third place: Budweiser Budvar světlé výčepní pivo

For 11° (jedenáctka) beer of the year — a category of medium body and alcohol — the winners were:

First Place: Ležák 11° from Pivovar Klášter
Second place: Otakar ležák from Polička
Third place: Svijanský Maz from Svijany

For 12° (dvanáctka) beer of the year — premium lagers of the classic “Bohemian Pilsner” style — the winners were:

First Place: Sváteční ležák from Bernard
Second place: Pilsner Urquell
Third place: Opat from Pivovar Broumov

For Speziál of the year — a category of higher-gravity special lagers — the winners were:

First Place: Primátor Exklusiv 16° from Pivovar Náchod
Second place: Kvasar from Černá Hora
Third place: Démon from Lobkowicz

For dark beer of the year:

First Place: Budweiser Budvar tmavý ležák
Second place: Speciální černé pivo from Bernard
Third place: Svijanská Kněžna from Svijany

For polotmavý pivo of the year — half-dark and amber lagers — the winners were:

First Place: Skalák from Rohozec
Second place: Primátor Pale Ale from Pivovar Náchod
Third place: Primátor polotmavé 13° from Pivovar Náchod

For non-alcoholic beer of the year — a growth category in the Czech lands — the winners were:

First Place: Bernard Free Jantar (amber)
Second place: Bernard Free (pale)
Third place: Svijanská Vozka from Svijany

For minipivovar of the year — “mini brewery,” aka “brewpub” — the winners were:

First Place: Prague’s Klášterní Pivovar Strahov
Second place: Pivovarský dvůr Chýně
Third place: Malostranský pivovar in Velké Meziříčí

For brewery of the year:

First Place: Svijany
Second place: Budweiser Budvar
Third place: Pivovar Náchod (Primátor)

For sládek roku, brewmaster of the year:

Ing. Josef Tolar from Budweiser Budvar

In addition to the awards, there were plenty of great brews on hand. Klášterní Pivovar Strahov brought its wonderful Autumn Dark, made with this year’s fresh Saaz hop harvest, which tasted even better — with much more hop bite in the finish — than last year’s version; the brewery’s excellent wheat beer provided a nice light counterpoint. Both the 11° and 12° pale lagers from Pivovar Polička were on draft, as was just about everything from Budweiser Budvar; the only Budvar beer I didn’t see there was the oft-maligned Bud Super Strong.

After the awards ceremony, the attendees went on a tour of the Budweiser Budvar brewery led by brewmaster Josef Tolar himself. I’ve been on the public tour at Budvar before, but this was the first time I saw so much behind the scenes and got to ask so many questions. (Q: What hops are used in the new love-it-or-hate-it Pardál? A: 100% Czech hops of the Angus variety, due to its higher alpha-acid content than the traditional Saaz hops used in Budvar. Q: When did Budvar complete its switch from open fermenters to cyclindro-conical tanks? A: 1996.)

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to stop in Budvar’s chmelárna, or hop room, which was a bit of a disappointment: Garrett Oliver once described the intensity of the hop aroma getting stronger and stronger as you take the slow freight elevator down into the chmelárna, and how the scent of all those hops — Budvar uses only whole Saaz hop flowers, no pellets or extracts — is nearly overwhelming once you’re actually in the room.

It was a great day out. Members of the Polish Bractwo Piwne, another European Beer Consumers Union member group, were also in attendance, as was Toshi Ishii, brewmaster from Japan’s Yo-Ho Brewing Co. I asked Miroslav Šmejda of Primátor about the brewery’s new stout, who said to look for it in Prague at Kaufland stores sometimes next month. Everyone seemed to have a great time: winners, losers, and especially lovers of great Czech beer.

And then, just a few minutes before we were supposed to take the bus back to Prague, Zbyněk Holan and Tomáš Maier from SPP told me to come with them. As the party continued, Mr. Tolar broke away from the celebrations and led us back across the darkened brewery grounds. He made a quick call on his mobile. A moment later, a Budvar employee arrived, opening the doors to the freight elevator for the hop room.

Herold beer has had a long and winding path over the past few years. Less than a decade ago it was found fairly often in expat hangouts like the Globe, though not always in the best condition, and sometimes in downright terrible condition. Although things had markedly improved by the time Michael Jackson came to Prague to promote Herold in late 2004, the brand’s image had been damaged by the occasional bad pints from before.

And yet Herold was making great beers, including one of the country’s first widely distributed wheat beers, the first Czech dark wheat most of us had ever seen, and a full line of quality lagers, including what must have been the country’s best bottled dark. They were always a bit hard to find in Prague, but then they became much harder to find, until only a couple of places carried the beer by the time I was finishing Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic.

One of them was the Dívčí skok restaurant in Prague’s Divoká Šárka park, a favorite setting for hiking and sunbathing. When the temperatures moved up earlier this summer, I went out there to have a pint.

Getting there is easy: the park has its own tram station just a couple of minutes past the Dejvická metro station. (It’s currently served by the 8 and 36 trams or the 108, 119 and 218 buses.) Once you get off at Divoká Šarka, follow the trails — largely unmarked — to the Džbán koupaliště, or swimming pool, about 15 minutes northerly by foot. Continuing on the trail two minutes past Džbán, you’ll see Dívčí skok. They have blue and white umbrellas on the terrace that say Pivovar Herold on them.

But when I got there, a small blackboard announced that they were serving Svijany. I asked what happened to Herold.

“We had too many problems with it,” the barman said. “It kept going bad.”

He said they made the switch at the end of 2007. When I mentioned that some people thought that Herold was the best dark lager in the country, he replied that Svijany was also pretty good. I ordered a half-liter and took a seat on the terrace under one of the Herold umbrellas.

Nearby, a group of bronzed, middle-aged men in swimming suits were drinking beers and talking about the difference between malé pivovary and big breweries, and how with the beers from the big breweries there was žádná chuť.

The Kněžna from Svijany was good, but it didn’t have the depth I remembered from Herold’s dark lager. I had a slice of sekaná and thought I was missing something.

On my way back through the park, I saw a flash of silver on the trail ahead. A park crew had driven through on the way to clear some brush, and their tire tracks went straight over what looked like a tighty woven steel belt. When I got closer I saw it was a slow worm, or slepýš, a limbless reptile which is considered endangered in the Czech lands. It had been crushed by the weight, leaving behind the pattern of its scales and a slight gleam in the shadows from the trees.

Of the many new brewpubs and breweries in the Czech lands, one of the most distinguished has to be Pivovar Kout na Šumavě, which returned to life by lurching off the operating table much like Frankenstein just as I was finishing Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic. Fortunately, I got the information in time to include a listing; unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to try even a single beer before we went to print.

Until now.

Located to the south of Plzeňský kraj in the beautiful Šumava forest, Kout is one of the few real breweries — not brewpubs — to reappear in the Czech Republic. Even stranger, Kout started out with remarkable success in a region that is completely pwned by Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus, the biggest brands in the country. Just after starting up, Kout secured distribution in several towns around the region, including Pilsen. Soon, more than a few cognoscenti started saying that they thought Kout made the best Pilsner-style beer in the Czech Republic, if not the world.

After tasting it, I’m inclined to agree.

Although there are more than a few places that stock Kout beer in Plzeňský kraj (Pilsen Region), further afield the brand is almost never seen; I haven’t yet found it in Prague. But if you travel from Prague to Bamberg, you can break up the six-hour trip with a stop in Domažlice, a surprisingly nice Czech border town with an impressive square, a leaning watchtower, photogenic arcades and narrow cobblestone lanes, as well as more than a few pubs that serve beers from Kout, the best of which might be the Koutská Pivnice, a narrow beer hall with no edibles other than chips and at least two Kout brews on tap, including the 12° golden lager.

Koutský světlý ležák (5% ABV) Pours a clear deep gold with no visible carbonation and topped by a very thick, meringue-like head. There’s a touch of yeast in the nose, a full, creamy mouthfeel of lush malt followed by a startling amount of bitter hops in the finish: the initial impression is one of those great Pilsner-style beers that comes close to a pale ale. It seems to really push the limits of bitterness for the style and yet has less Saaz hop aroma than many similar brews. The head stratifies into a series of thick rings going down the glass like geological layers; additional sips bring out flavors of honey and plums. Truly remarkable.

That’s just one pivo from Kout, though it is the flagship, and rightly so. The folks at Ratebeer rank it quite highly. In addition, Kout has launched a line that includes a dark 18°, one of the current beer trends I mentioned in The Truth About Budvar, as well as a dark 14° and a quotidian golden 10°. I’ll post more on those brews once I taste them, and I promise I will taste them all as soon as is humanly possible.

By the way, if you’re thinking of going to Domažlice, the town really is remarkably well-preserved and has an interesting history of protecting the Czech border with Bavaria and the setting for Czech-German conflicts dating all the way back to the thirteenth century. Konšelský šenk is one of the most comfortable hotels we’ve found outside of Prague; our clean and modern double was roughly half the price of what we paid for a similar room last year in České Budějovice and easily twice as nice. We found kvasnicové Svijany in one of the restaurants in town; other pubs carry Chodovar as well as Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus, naturally. But if you do go, there’s only one beer you’ll want to try.

There was news yesterday that South Bohemia’s Platan brewery has been bought by K Brewing Group, as my Prague Monitor colleagues reported, via the Czech News Agency.

It’s unknown what exactly this will mean for the plane tree from Protivín, though several other brands that K Brewing has invested in — Malý Rohozec, Svijany and Černá Hora, in particular — are strong small producers with good lines. I certainly do like Platan. It’s the local beer at my in-laws, who live in nearby Písek, and the drive to the brewery gate (above) is one of the prettiest in all of Bohemian beerdom. In warm weather, cyclists, strollers and families from the village head up the allée to the brewery taproom and restaurant. Who doesn’t love plane trees?

Of course, it’s not just that the grounds are photogenic: unlike some brands, Platan is not resting on its basic lagers, to coin a phrase, producing a very good standard 11° golden beer, as well as a couple of outside-the-box brews: the creamy and rich 14° Prácheňská Perla, as well as the kicks-like-a-mule Knížecí 21° (with a memory-distorting 10.6% ABV). No, Platan doesn’t yet produce a semi-dark or a wheat beer, as I suggested Budvar should. (And the golden 14°, at least, is in fairly familiar territory. Let’s call that a “next to the box” brew.) But Platan still does produce a more diverse line of beers than many Czech marques, and all at reliably high quality.

High enough to attract interest from a famous name.

Which brings us to the part of the announcement I found most interesting. Almost lost among the sale news was the brief note that, besides its own brand, Platan also produces beer under license for Plzeňský Prazdroj, aka Pilsner Urquell. In fact, Pilsner Urquell uses the facilities at Platan to brew their Klasik budget lagers, and has previously brewed Primus, another downmarket drinker, there as well.

That means a couple of things: that Platan clearly has unused capacity, while Pilsner Urquell does not, which explains Pilsner’s recent expansion projects at home, as well as its decisions to brew in Poland and Russia. And even though Klasik and Primus are hardly premiums, it’s a small but significant vote of confidence that Platan gets to handle someone else’s workload.

Naturally, no one knows what might or might not change with the new owners in Protivín. But Czech beer lovers could suggest that they use that spare capacity to diversify the Platan product line a bit further.

Every little bit helps. And every new amber beer, wheat beer and strong dark lager helps a lot.