The Czechs have a saying “Kde se pivo vari, tam se dobre dari” (Where beer is brewed, life is good). We Canadian musicians couldn’t agree more, so we set off in search of a nice microbrewery and found Pivovarsky Dum in the Nove Mesto part of town. It was clearly the place to be: it was filled with locals and visitors alike, and it was 20 minutes before the doorman (who looked like an ex-Secret Policeman) could find us a seat. It was worth the wait.

These guys take their beer seriously. Not only do they have about 8 styles of in-house beer to choose from, they also offer beer brandy and beer champagne, and most of the menu items have beer in them. We decided to take the menu for a test-drive.

We started with the “beer sampler”, 8 different beers, each in glasses like this!

(OK… more like this)

It even came with a set of instructions with the proper drinking order. It looked like a board game: Wheel of Beer Fortune.

So, here’s the beers:

• Czech style light – delicious, our favourite. Disturbingly easy-drinking.
• Czech style dark – equally yummy
• Sour Cherry – Halls cough medicine
• Coffee – Two of our favourite food groups put together, and a great pick-me-up halfway through the Beer Tour.
• Wheat Beer – sweet and spicy
• Banana Beer – sounds crazy, but it’s delicious
• Nettle Beer – What the… actually, bitter but good. Like a medicinal tea.
• Blueberry Beer – Ed called it the “perfect breakfast beer”. We’re waiting to see if he tests out his theory.
  

And then there was the food, almost as good as the beer. Patrick got the pork with thyme and beer sauce. Suba, the vegetarian in the band, got the best veggie plate she’s had all tour. Ed got the venison ragout. (“Hey look, Suba! I’m eating Bambi!” Suba almost stabbed him with her fork.) Dylan got the tried-and-true traditional goulash.

A moment of amusement halfway through the meal, as the waiters brought out plates of food each with a piece of meat the size of a soccer ball and set them in front of some very frightened-looking tourists. Turns out they had ordered “pork knee”, which was, well, exactly what it looked like. Mmmmmmm.

Dessert consisted of a crepe with – you guessed it – two kinds of beer jelly. It was out of this world.

Fully stuffed, we eventually hauled ourselves out of there and into a beautiful Prague night.

So if you ever find yourselves in Prague, check it out. Between this place, and Prague’s own (non-beer-related) beauty, you may never leave.