History of Cool-Boxes in the Czech Republic

Up to the beginning of the 1990’s – Cool-boxes of RaJ (Restaurace a jidelny). Pubs with high consumption, usually restaurants at railway stations and in housing developments, used vertical tanks. Beer was drawn by normal air compressors, which was a major disadvantage of this system. When beer was in touch with air for a longer period of time, it staled and lost its relish. It was also very sensitive with regard to tank cooling and pipe sanitation. A “beer mark” – a pipe with a ruler along the tank – was used to measure the volume of beer tapped. The volume of those tanks ranged between 10 and 17 hl.

1970’s – Dutch and German breweries started using the bag-in-box system – horizontal foil tanks. Beer stored in the bag is not affected by air, and therefore it has a better quality and higher durability. These tanks use a modern digital system for measuring the volume of beer tapped – a flow meter. These tanks were used by selected restaurants, e.g. those located in the historical centres of towns where daily beer deliveries would have been difficult.

1995 – Installation of the first ten bag-in-box systems in the Czech Republic. The first cool-box of the new type was installed at the Pilsner pub U Korbele offering Gambrinus from tap. The pub owners started realizing the benefits of new cool-boxes and became increasingly interested in their installation.

1996 – Plzensky Prazdroj with its new system expands to Moravia. In Ostrava, the centre of Radegast’s fans, then its biggest competitor, it celebrated success with three cool-boxes tapping Gambrinus lager beer. In the same year, the superpremium brand Pilsner Urquell is drawn from cool-boxes, starting at Plzensky sklipek in Prague–Dejvice.

1996 - 1998 – Plzensky Prazdroj cool-boxes are experiencing a big boom. During this three-year period, most of Plzensky Prazdroj’s clients who met the necessary prerequisite, e.g. sufficient consumption, adopted the new system.

1999 – The Radegast and Velke Popovice breweries become part of the Plzensky Prazdroj group. Pubs tapping these brands also start to switch to the new bag-in-box tank system, if appropriate.

2006 – The first 5 hl tanks were installed. These smaller tanks are suitable for restaurants and pubs with sales volumes below the level required for 10 hl tanks.

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