The Wine-Maker of the Year is a prestigious competition organised regularly by the Czech Archive of Wines. On this year there was held the 9th annual meeting. Even though this is a pure winy event, its international wine commission represented by John Avery, Ralf Anselmann and Natasha Hughes paid a visit to Pivovarsky Dum (The House of Beer) and, in the company of our Honza Suran, tasted the secrets of the Czech beer. Nothing new in the cellar ! A year ago similar experts of the wine competition – John Salvi, Sarah Abbott a Jonathan Pedley revealed the same preference but on top of it they even managed to visit the mini-brewery U Medvidku at that time. Our recent guests had their second preference in going out for an old Prague sightseeing, disregarding the tropical heat on the day.  (Photogallery)

On Sunday 6th August 2011 we took Beer Roulette out of lounges of restaurants and festivity halls and performed it outdoor at the Grand Plaza at the occasion of Litomysl Beer Festival. Thus we could introduce this enlightening competitive entertainment to broad public. The festival organisers did it in cooperation with the Union of the Friends of Beer. It was a great success showing that the Czech version of Beer Roulette modified to small breweries with special beers was closer to the spirit of people than the “universal” world roulette featuring not so much differentiated beer offers of grand multinationals. A couple of photos of the event can be found HERE.

The brewery Creemore Springs located in Creemore, Ontario in Canada, will celebrate soon 25 years of their foundation. Their brewsters decided to greet it by launching a special jubilee beer. But where to find an inspiration if not in Bohemia? Our colleagues from Canada have visited in May several breweries and their ale houses: U Medvídků, U Dvou Koček, Svijany, Klášter, Pilsner Prazdroj, Březnice, Klášterní pivovar Strahov a Pivovarský dvůr Chýně. Just enough to have a stock of ideas for preparing their beer festivity.

Photogallery of the event

It is not only the historical beauty which attracts international companies for staging their professional meetings to Prague. For example, on 12th April 2011 SWEP INTERNATIONAL Ltd.  invited their business partners for a dinner to the Brewer’s House , that included the tasting of Czech beers and the participation in the beer roulette. As is apparent, the most successful gambler was honoured according to his merits.
Photogallery of the event.

On the 7th and 8th April the company Hewlett-Packard, Ltd., organised an education training seminar for its trading partners – The New Product Training. Aetna, Ltd., the main administrator of the event, chose the historical town Mikulov for the venue. In order to stimulate the contact-building among the participants, the professional programme was enriched by an Irish Party, which was facilitated by the courtesy of Czech Beer Tours.
During the evening the participants could taste the differences between the Czech and the Irish beer in five filling stations. There were the following brands served, which should be guessed: Irish Murphy’s, Kilkenny, Guinnes and Hersbrucker (first time in Czech Republic), and the Czech specials of Bernard, Zatec, Primator and Hanusovice. Afterwards there was arranged a beer roulette competition. The evening was moderated by the actress Marketa Hrubesova who also rewarded the winners by interesting prizes.
Photogallery of the event.