A Guarantee of the Freshest Beer Possible

The best technology for beer tapping

At the beginning of 1995, Plzensky Prazdroj experts started providing restaurants with a new process - drawing beer from large-capacity tanks rather than traditional kegs. The new process was enabled by specially developed beer tanks. Today, eight years later, this system prevails in most restaurants that meet Plzensky Prazdroj’s technical requirements for tapping its beers. Thanks to their benefits, the beer tanks have become one of the major factors in achieving a competitive edge in the already saturated beer market in the Czech Republic.

Patrons of famous pubs enjoying their favourite Pilsner beer are mostly unaware that the beer is not poured from traditional kegs but from refrigerated tanks. In the Czech Republic, this system is now used by almost 400 restaurants and pubs selling Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, Radegast and Velkopopovicky Kozel.

There were several reasons behind the tank development decision made by Plzensky Prazdroj at the beginning of the 1990’s. Distribution and storage of beer in large volumes (as opposed to individual kegs) is cost effective for both the brewery and the owners of restaurants and pubs. However, tanks that were used earlier had a clear, negative impact on the quality of beer. Upon contact with air, non-pasteurized beer quickly became stale and lost its optimum quality.

This problem has been removed by introducing a state-of-the-art system of stainless steel tanks with a volume of 10 hl (and 5 hl from 2006). Inside the tanks, there are leak-proof polypropylene bags in which to store beer (a so called bag-in-box system). The advantage of this system is that beer does not come into contact with air during the pouring process. This has a positive impact on the quality and durability of non-pasteurized beer. A necessary prerequisite for the installation of beer tanks is a minimum level of weekly beer consumption.

With the benefits that it brought to restaurant operators and consumers, the system positively influenced the performance of Plzensky Prazdroj’s activities on the Czech beer market. Major pubs offering Pilsner Urquell beer on tap gradually switched to the new system.

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