Staropramen Premium The Spit or Swallow Beer Review
Shagdog &
Jammer are back with another beer star,
Staropramen!
Staropramen
Premium
Brewed by: Pivovary Staropramen
Czech Republic
Beer Advocate
BA
Score: 77
The
Bros Score:
N/A
Style:
Czech Pilsener
ABV: 5.00%
Availability: Year-round. bottle (230), can (29), on-tap (27)
Rate
Beer
Overall Score: 34
Style Score: 50
RATINGS: 1051 WEIGHTED
AVG: 2.87
EST. CALORIES:
150 ABV: 5%
Staropramen Brewery (Pivovary Staropramen a.s.) is the second largest brewery in the Czech Republic, and is situated in the
Smíchov district of
Prague. It was founded in
1869 and the brand name Staropramen, literally meaning "old spring", was registered in
1911. It is owned by
Molson Coors and its products are exported to 37 different countries, mostly in
Europe and
North America.
Staropramen Brewery's history begins in 1869 when shares for a "
Joint Stock Brewery in Smíchov" were offered for sale. The brewery building was completed and beer first brewed in
1871. The Ostravar Brewery opened in 1898 followed a year later by the
Braník brewery; these two breweries would later merge with Staropramen.
Due to competition from other Prague breweries, the brand name Staropramen, which translates as "old spring" (water source), was registered in 1911. After the
First World War all three breweries saw a period of sustained growth, and by the
1930s Staropramen was the largest brewery in
Czechoslovakia. With socialism after the
Second World War, all
Czechoslovakian breweries were nationalised, including Staropramen. After socialism ended in
1989, the brewery, along with the Braník and Měšťan breweries, became in
1992 part of the Prague Breweries group (Pražské Pivovary), which by
1996 came under control of the
Bass company. Bass brought Ostravar into the group in
1997, then in
2000 sold its brewing operations to Interbrew, which merged with AmBev in 2004 to form Inbev. Staropramen has seen steady growth and is currently the Czech Republic's second largest beer producer with a 15.3% share of the domestic market.
In mid
October 2009, private equity fund
CVC Capital Partners bought all of Anheuser--Busch InBev's holdings in
Central Europe (including Staropramen) for €2.23 billion. They renamed the operations StarBev. In
April 2012, Molson Coors bought StarBev.
The brewery's flagship product is Staropramen, a "ležák" or premium beer lager of 12 degrees
Plato or 5% abv. Other beers produced under this brand are
Černý ("dark") - a 4.4% dark lager, Granát ("garnet") - a 4.8% red lager and Svĕtlý ("light") - a
4.0% pale lager.
The company also produces beers under the Braník and Ostravar brands.
Staropramen beers are also produced under license in several other
European countries, including
Serbia (
Apatin Brewery),
Croatia (Zagreb Brewery) and
Romania.