Beerpedia

By definition, innovation is a process that translates an idea into a product or service that holds some sort of value. Nowadays, innovation is a word mostly associated with various Silicon Valley start-ups and events with vague abbreviations such as CES, SXSW, etc.

However, innovation is not exclusive to the 21st century and the nerds from the Big Bang Theory. Innovation has always been the force driving forward the human kind.

Each generation of people that were connected in some way to Staropramen have witnessed how various historical circumstances, as well as great individuals, used innovation to keep producing great beer. Our brewmasters always made sure that everybody involved brought a little extra to the table besides merely making sure that the beer coming out of the brewery was great. They were the true innovators, and among many excellent ones, there were a few truly great ones that made innovation a part of our DNA.

Michael Trnka, a highly respected brewmaster, is one of the most important persons in our history. He spent whooping 28 years working at Staropramen (1877-1905) and during his reign the output increased tenfold to over half a million hectoliters of beer, which was an outstanding result even by today’s standards. One of the reasons for this skyrocketing success was the fact that he created two innovative and revolutionary recipes. One recipe was the 10 degrees plato recipe and the other was for Granát, the first semi-dark beer. Both of these beers remain popular to this day in slightly modernized forms.

Joseph Paspa, another highly respected brewmaster, spent 21 years at the brewery (1912 - 1933).  The most important result of his work was a full-scale modernization of the brewery. The new brew houses were enlarged and built up, and the fermentation rooms with cooling vessels and large wooden barrels were replaced by modern steel tanks.

Following the path of his predecessors, Zdenek Lux, our current brewmaster, introduced several daring innovations, which had a significant impact with their volume and nature on the entire beer market in the Czech Republic. These include Staropramen Unfiltered, non-alcoholic Brewer’s Lemonade and a line of beer mixes under the Staropramen Cool brand. Both Brewer's Lemonade and Cool line products can be tasted in Czech Republic only.

It is safe to say that a combination of tradition and modern technologies is what makes our brewery special. But without innovators like Trnka, Paspa, Lux and many others who always challenged conventions and pushed things forward, we would never have managed to build what we have today - a brewery that makes great beer all year round for the entire world to enjoy.