Kozel Premium

www.kozel.cz

Brewed by Pivovar Velké Popovice (Asahi)

Style: Czech Pilsener

Velké Popovice, Czech Republic

Kozel is a Czech beer from Pivovar Velké Popovice. Produced since 1874 when Franz Ringhoffer took over a brewery in Velke Popovice just southeast of the beautiful city of Prague. The brewery had a long history, since the 14th century, and was also once owned by some Benedictine monks, but it wasn’t until Franz acquired the property that things really got going. He built a completely new brewery with the, as of then, most uptodate brewing equipment he could find.

The year 1874 was also the year that Kozel was produced. Kozel, which means “goat” in Czech, is well presented in the stunning and very unique logo, which is of a big brown goat enjoying a pint of Kozel, almost with a cunning smile on his face! Apparently the eye catching logo was created by a wandering French painter who was so enamored by the hospitality that he received in Velke Popovice that he designed the special emblem as an expression of his gratitude.

As for a lot of European breweries, both World wars caused a halt to the Kozel beers rise and slowed down production. During the first World War, raw materials were scarce, as were workers. And in the second world war, Hitler’s Germany took control of the Sudetenland, Velké Popovice and the surrounding region, eventually making Kozel into a state-controlled company.

After 1945 the Velke Popovice plant was nationalized, like everything else in the Soviet sphere of influence, and it wasn’t until 1991 with the fall of Communism in the East of Europe that the brewery became independent again. After its privatization, it became part of multi-national beer giants, SABMiller in 2002 and eventually sold to Japanese beer kings, Asahi Breweries in 2016. That’s capitalism for ya!

The beer is popular, especially in Eastern Europe, in Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. Recently it has entered new markets in Scandinavia, the UK, North America, Israel, Greece and Turkey. All this production and export has made Kozel become the best-selling Czech beer brand in the world.

And not only that but it also has won numerous awards, first place in the beer World Cup in the USA in 2003 for its Velkopopovický Kozel Premium, and in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999 it won the gold medal in the World Beer Championship in Chicago in the Pilsner category.

Other beverages made by Plzeňský Prazdroj include the popular Kingswood ciders and the sparkling Frisco. Beers include its Velkopop Goat light, Velkopop “Goat black”, and the Velkopop. goat 11 ° Medium.

Review: 500ml Bottle of Kozel Premium: ABV: 4.8% vol

The award winning beer, coming in a lovely brown bottle with that oh so cool logo of the drinking goat, excellent.

On pour got a clear golden yellow colour with a white fluffy head.

Some small carbonation going on, buzzing along nicely. Head dies.

Had a very light beery smell, yeasty with lots of malts, but overall it was quite a faint smell.

Got a nice warm and sweet feeling on the initial taste, a nice big mouthful. Malty, very malty.

Tastes not really hitting me but man it is so drinkable, could nearly down it in one go. This beer is very smooth, so easy to drink. I like it!

Pure malt, with little sign of the hops, low bitterness.

Not the best tasting beer, very mild with the tastes, but oh my god it is so smooth and crisp. Good solid beer, you can’t go wrong.

Had a good few of these beers in the session and the next day I felt fine which was a bonus. Just goes to show that its a good clean beer. Nice.

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