Festival of small breweries

There was a beer festival near our house yesterday.  After my hubby finished up his work (yep, his work is non-stop), we decided to go and check it out.  A row of tents for small breweries were set up on the street in front of the old town hall, and the area was packed with people enjoying LOTS of beer.

We heard music coming from the courtyard. Indeed there was a band playing Johnny Cash like music and other oldies. The band members were also oldies (...sorry), but their music was so vibrant and people were so much into them.

We got ourselves a couple of glasses of beer from the Lobkowicz brewery, which is a brewery from Vysoky Chlumec (about 60 km south of Prague). It was established in 1466 and was aquired by the Lobkowicz family in 1474. The brewing was interrupted in 1939 when the brewery was confiscated by Nazis and the Lobkowicz family was forced into exile in the UK. After World War II, the family returned to Czechoslovakia but the communists took over their properties, including the brewery in 1948.  In 1992 the brewery was returned to the Lobkowicz family and the US-born William Lobkowicz took over the management of his family's assets in the Czech Republic. 

How was the taste?  Well, I am not a beer expert, but it was smooth and was topped with very creamy foam, which I loved. 

We took the beer and headed to the concert area to enjoy the "Johnny Cash Revival" (apprently it was the band's name). One beer lasted throughout the concert, but we found out there would be another band playing. So, we decided to give ourselves another try from another brewery. 

This time, we tried ones from Černá Hora.  This brewery is from the area called Černá Hora, which is about 30-35 km north of Brno. The history of this brewery goes back to 1298 (!!).  According to their web site,  there is a record from the 16th of July 1298, the Chamberlin Matouš of Černá Hora was witnessed to a Templar ceremony, when Eberhard of Steindorf waived his rights to lands in Dobřínsk and Petrovice and passed on part of his property to the Templar order in Templštejn. During this church law ceremony the beer was drunk which Matouš of Černá Hora had brought on his horse and cart. Consequently, the ceremony was validated with Černá Hora beer.  It also says, "The brewery’s templar history was not only written by Matouš from Černá Hora but also the templar Hartleb II of Boskovice, who was knighted as a Templar in 1308 and who give the order Černá Hora castle and the brewery within it. Hence, the Černá Hora brewery was the Templar brewery BRAXATORIUM TEMPLARIORUM IN MONTE NEGRO." 

We went back to the concert and enjoyed the music by Kulturní Úderka; a three-men group with guitar+vocal, bass, and drum.  Kulturni means Cultural but the Google Translate couldn't give me the meaning of Úderka (if anyone knows what it means, please let me know--). 

The band played some heavy metal stuff which I didn't enjoy that much, but their fusion jazzy ones were so awesome!