Top places to try Czech, German, and Belgium beers in nine days.We recently did a mini tour of some of the greatest beer countries in Europe, hitting Czech Republic, Germany, and Belgium in nine days.

Here are some of the highlights…

Logically we began our tour in the Czech Republic, the birthplace of pilsner and the biggest beer consuming country (per capita) in the world. We had heard so much about “beer cheese” from our friends at Earls Beer and Cheese that we decided to visit first U Medvidku–the only hotel with a brewery in Prague.

The first thing we ordered was the beer cheese with a Czech Budweiser in the downstairs pub. The bread was buttery and crunchy with a nice kick from the raw garlic.

After we went upstairs where the U Medvidkubrewery is located and sampled. 

We choose the cloudy dark lager. This was one of the most interesting beers we sampled on the entire trip. It had a lively, slightly funky, bready, vanilla flavor with a deliciously creamy head. Many Americans would be surprised that a lager could be so complex.The next highlight was Prague Beer Museum with the country’s biggest selection Czech microbrews. Our favorites were d’Este by Ferdinand, Sedm Kuli by Ferdinand, and Kocour Samuraj IPA. The bartender was friendly and helpful and we got to try a wide variety of styles.

A safe bet for anyone is Portrefena Husa, which is a chain featuring tank Staropramen–our favorite of the bigger breweries. A stellar item on the menu was a Leffe beer spare ribs.Lokal, a traditional Czech cafeteria, also has Urquell from the tank and great Czech food. The same company that owns Lokal has recently opened a higher end restaurant in the Upper East Side in New York called Hospoda

Pivovarsky Klub offers a more subdued atmosphere but a staggering selection of bottles and a solid line up of taps. We asked about the sausage and beans on the menu and got a dry answer, “It’s sausage and beans…” We are glad we went for it. It was one of the most memorable dishes of the Trip