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The Beer Festival.

Plzen is Czech Republic's oldest town founded in 1295.

The streets crossed each other at the right angle, and the town was planned as a rectangle, with Europe's biggest square in the middle, the Republic Square, formerly Market Square. It is famous for the country's highest chapel with a sightseeing pad, belonging to the St Bartholomew Church. The church stores the famous Plzen Madonna. Probably every town with a history in Czech Republic has a legend, and so does Plzen. People say that the Madonna was created by a blind sculptor who was miraculously rewarded after finishing his creation – his eyesight returned.

Underneath the town's historic center there are plenty of cellars and corridors, up to 25 km long. Formerly these were cellars of residential houses, built, expanded, connected and deepened. This is a huge multi-level structure.

It has to be noted that the town became famous not for the historical center and not for the Church of St Bartholomew. The town made its way into history due to Pilsner Urquell, the world famous beer brand. Plzen is the country's oldest beer brewing center. The first beer museum to be ever opened in the world belongs to the Plzen brewery. Visit the exhibitions for detailed information on beer, its history, types, and the brewing process. You can also watch beer being brewed and stored.

An annual beer festival has been held in Plzen for the last 165 years. Known as the Pilsner Fest, it’s one of the oldest beer events in Czech Republic. Held in October, it comes as a grand finale for numerous beer holidays celebrated in Czech towns throughout the entire summer. Traditionally the Plzen festival begins with giving out free Plzen beer known as the 12-degree beer. Concerts are held on the main square, and the beer museum hosts all kinds of amazing costume shows.

Some time ago all the Czech beer was subdivided into 3 types based on the wort concentration, or density, closely related to the volume of alcohol and extract content. These were draught beer, 10%, seasoned beer, 11-12.5%, and special beer, over 12%. This traditional classification was replaced in 2000 by a modern one, more corresponsing to the EU standards.

The beers were separated into four groups according to color, and into 11 subgroups according to the resulting treatment.
Four large groups of Czech beer are lager, made mostly from light malt, semi-dark and dark, made from dark malt, caramel malt, and color malt mixed with light malts, if necessary, and mixed (rezane) beer made by mixing light and dark beers of matching categories.

Subgroups are light beer, draught beer, lagers and porters, low alcohol and low suger beers, wheat and yeast beers, plus alcohol free and flavored beers. Beers are also divided according to the fermentation type, into upper fermentation and lower fermentation beers.

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