U Flecku substitute?

So I just went to Specs near me (in DFW) and they did not have Czechvar Dark. They did have Praga Dark but I have no idea how that is.

I also remembered that there is a tiny brewery just north of Houston called Stesti. It seems they are trying to be a full Czech brewery. They have a dark lager on their website.
http://www.stestibrewingcompany.com/our-beer.html

 

And how exactly would you know what constitutes proper execution of this recipe and what doesn't, considering you have never tasted the original? Hubris is a helluva drug....

 

The time I was there, it was sour, not good at all. Six months later a hug in the club brought a bottle back from the brewpub, and it was wonderful. Variation in a little brewery?

 

Never had it be sour when I was there. I could imagine there is some variation at the brewery, though.

 

This was back in early '99, and I was so disappointed.

 

This thread from a few years ago has some of the best tips out there on brewing an U Fleku clone:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bohemian-dunkel-recipe-doesnt-add-up.232847/

I think everyone in this current thread piped in back then. U Fleku is a very contentious topic!

I buy Notch Cerne Pivo (now just called black lager) whenever possible, but I didn't see much of it this year.

I just bottled my homebrew Tmavy Lezak on Monday. It was pretty tasty green and uncarbonated.

 

Yup, there can even be issues about recipe execution in the same brewery.

There was an interesting article in the October 2105 issue of BYO entitled A Brewer’s Thumbprint, 5 homebrewers, 5 setups, 1 recipe.

An extract from the summary:

“The results of this experiment seem to indicate that even when using the same ingredients, mash temperature and fermentation schedules, every brewer is going to produce a unique beer.”

As I posted previously: Brewing process is key.

Maybe a different brewer (e.g., an assistant brewer?) made the beers you drank at U Fleku?

Cheers!

 

The fact that it is tasty green is a good sign.

I drank my last bottle of Tmavý Ležák last week that I bottled on 2/23/16 and even though it was over a year old it was still very tasty. Dark malts have great anti-oxidative properties!!

Cheers!

 

Ron P points out that U Fleku is a 13 degree P beer...and that Tmavy Lezak ranges from 11-12 P. So much confusion around these beers....

EDIT: double-checked. U Fleku is indeed 13 P. According to Ron P, then, it is not a Tmavy Lezak.

 

Sorry to add to the confusion! I wasn't going for an U Fleku clone, although I can understand that it sounded like I was trying for that. I mostly brew smaller beers for my day to day drinking, hence the Tmavý Ležák instead of the Tmavé Speciální (like the U Fleku). I haven't been to U Fleku since 1995, so my memory is a little hazy on what it tasted like back then, but I still have my tasting notes from that trip somewhere.

 

Didn't mean to imply that. Was mainly pointing out the confusion from Jack, above.

 

Me too as I posted in the other thread that you linked:

"...not a clone of U Fleku." That is 100% correct. I used the Horst Dornbusch recipe as a 'springboard' but I did indeed freelance here."

Cheers!

 

And you said in the other thread -- as you implied above -- that U Fleku is a Tmavy Lezak. Just correcting that misinformation, as the point of this thread is to help find beers close to U Fleku.

 

In the OP: “I visited the U Flecku brewery in Prague over a decade ago and have been searching ever since (in vain) for a beer that tastes like their dark lager.”

A homebrewed Tmavý Ležák will fit the “like” criteria.

You will not see the word “clone” in any of my posts in this thread.

Cheers!

 

It would be helpful to clear up confusion if you had the decency to simply admit your mistake. However, I know that hope is in vain.

 

I was just thinking... Where did the criteria for Tmavy ležák being restricted to 11-12 P come from? Looking at the U Fleků website on their menu they do list their beer as 13 P. But it is named on their menu as a ležák. As Flekovský ležák specifically. Although I have no idea what that first word means and I couldn't find anything looking for a translation.

Ron P.'s definitions say anything 13P or higher is not ležák but the more generic Pivo.

http://en.ufleku.cz/restaurant/drinks/

Beer
0,4 l Flekovský ležák 13° 59 Kč​

 

Not sure why they call it that, other than for marketing and/or convenience purposes. It translates to "Flekovský [the family name] Lager," which I suspect tells the many tourists the basics of what they are drinking. As for Ron P's classifications, I can only assume they are based on extensive research and direct conversation and experience with the beers and brewers.

EDIT: if the classifications are wrong or misleading, I'm sure Ron would admit his mistake, as would I.

 

I couldn't say at which point the most recent gravity bands were decided by whichever authority, but looking at the history of Bohemian brewing it seems logical that they would call gravitites above 13% "special", as opposed to the common ca 10% schenkbier/vycepni pivo and the slightly higher gravity lagerbier/lezak around 12%.

See for example this table showing beer production in the years 1868-1869 for Bohemia, divided into 1% increments (as per the legislation, 10 "grad", or degree worts could be between 10-10.9, 12 degree worts could be 12-12.9% etc. and still pay the same tax rate)



Similar table only for the Austrian Hungarian empire as a a whole for the years 1880-1881, with Bohemia found under "Böhmen":

 

@Crusader While interesting those tables are not helpful at all. Yes we know that their beer was taxed based on the extract/strength. But there is no information saying that the different levels were called different things.

I think they were. But was the cutoff for Lezak actually 12.9 or would it have gone up into 13 at all?

The names were not only one band, because things are saying lezak was 11-12. Everything below that was vycepni pivo. 13 was special but was 14-16 also special?

 

Ok. Looking at Budvar's website they have a 16P beer they call Speciální pivo so that answers that question in my last post. Other than that they also have a few ležák (světlý, tmavý, and
Kroužkovaný), and a výčepní pivo.

I have no idea how any of that is pronounced or what anything means other than ležák = lager. pivo = beer? and tmavý = dark.