"czech" news and stories

Mama's Little Yella Pils Photo: Oscar Blues.

Crisp, floral Czech pilsners can typically lord their pedigree over their American counterparts -- the champagne to most stateside macro-breweries' bathwater (Miller Lite calls itself a "true pilsner beer.")

"Mass-market pilsners are liquid Muzak," says Marty Jones, the "lead singer and idea man" for Lyons, Colorado's Oskar Blues. To rebut the bland, watery brews littering the marketplace, Oskar Blues -- the first microbrewery to can craft beer -- has unveiled Mama's Little Yella Pils. "We're restoring a little honor to the concept," Jones says of Mama's, which re-creates a classic Czech pilsner with American craft-beer flair.

Instead of relying on cheap adjuncts like rice or corn, Mama's is constructed with 100 percent malt and a generous dose of spicy Saaz hops. But brewing a pilsner is an exercise in restrained elegance, unlike brutish IPAs and boozy stouts potent enough to incapacitate Paul Bunyan.

 Gadling reports that some Czech food scientists are developing a beer that will alleviate the symptoms associated with menopause, including hot flashes and difficulty sleeping. The beer contains an unusually high level of phytoestrogen, a form of estrogen that is found in plants and the hops and barley malt use in some types of beer. A gynecologist who ran a small trial of the beer on 20 patients reported that "volunteers who drank three deciliters nightly for two months reported fewer menopausal symptoms." Three deciliters is about 10 ounces of beer. The brew is also low-calorie and low alcohol, but there is no word yet as to when it might be commercially available.

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I can honestly say that I've never had the desire to swim in beer. If, by chance, this notion has entered your dreams, you're in luck. A family brewery in Prague recently opened a spa where visitors can lounge in Victorian-style baths filled with beer and get beer wraps, massages and other cosmetic treatments. A full weekend goes for about $140, but single treatments are offered for less. The spa's owner touts the curative properties of beer and said he hopes that a beer spa will appeal to men who might be put off by the idea of other spa experiences.

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