U Pinkasů: Prague's First Pilsner
Why is it significant?
Find the old tavern sign in the corner of Jungmannovo náměstí, right beside the gate of the tall church, and breathe in: wood, malt and a century and a half of conversation. This is U Pinkasů, and according to its own proud history, this is where Prague first tasted the beer that changed the world.
Key Facts
| Place | U Pinkasů: Prague's First Pilsner |
|---|---|
| Address | Jungmannovo náměstí 16, 110 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08300, 14.42390 |
| Part of Walk | Dark Lager and Dumplings: Prague's Historic Beer Halls & Food Markets |
| Generated | Generated |
Find the old tavern sign in the corner of Jungmannovo náměstí, right beside the gate of the tall church, and breathe in: wood, malt and a century and a half of conversation. This is U Pinkasů, and according to its own proud history, this is where Prague first tasted the beer that changed the world.
The story begins about ninety kilometres to the west, in Plzeň. In 1842 the burghers of that town, fed up with their murky, unreliable beer, hired a Bavarian brewer called Josef Groll. On the 5th of October he brewed a lager with pale malt, soft local water and Žatec hops, and when it was served that November, people saw something new: a clear, golden beer with a white head. It was the first pilsner, the ancestor of most of the beer drunk on the planet today.
Here in Prague, a tailor called Jakub Pinkas had developed a taste for the stuff on his visits to Plzeň. In 1843, the tavern's tradition says, he began bringing barrels of it to the capital and pouring it for his customers. The tailoring was soon forgotten. The beer was not. His tavern became a meeting point for Czech patriots, writers and politicians, and Pilsner Urquell is still what most people come here to drink.
A few things to know before you sit down in any Czech pub. Put a beer mat in front of you if you want another, and the waiter will keep bringing glasses until you lay the mat on top of your empty one. Your round is often tallied with pen marks on a slip of paper on the table. And the head on a Czech beer is not a swindle: it protects the beer from the air. Some regulars even order a glass that is almost all foam, called a mlíko, milk.
Look at the bronze man sitting in the square: Josef Jungmann, who saved the Czech language with a five-volume dictionary. It feels right that his statue and the first Prague pilsner share a square, two kinds of national revival. Now walk north past the Můstek and into the Old Town, to the street market on Havelská.