Private Prague Beer Tour | Czech Beer Tasting

Prague Beer Tour: The Real Czech Beer Experience

Duration: 2 hours

Our Prague beer tour is a private, cultural walk through the city's finest traditional pubs and small breweries with a licensed local guide — just your group, no strangers. This is not a party pub crawl. Over a relaxed few hours you'll taste several genuine Czech beer styles, learn what makes them special, and pair them with classic beer snacks. No prior beer knowledge is needed — only an appetite for the real thing. Czechia drinks more beer per person than any country on earth, and we'll show you exactly why.

What makes Czech beer so special?

Czech beer is special because it was here, in nearby Plzeň, that the world's first pale lager — pilsner — was brewed in 1842 by the Bavarian brewer Josef Groll. That golden beer became the template for most beer made on the planet today. Brewed with soft water, Moravian malt and aromatic Saaz hops, Czech lager is protected by the EU under the name "České pivo" since 2008. We'll explain the tradition behind your glass — more than a thousand years of brewing, traced back to the Břevnov Monastery in 993 — so every sip means more.

Ležák or desítka: how to read a Czech beer

On a Czech menu you'll see numbers like 10° and 12° — and they don't mean alcohol. Those degrees are the Plato scale, developed by Czech chemist Karel Napoleon Balling, measuring the sugar in the wort before fermentation. A 10° (desítka) is a lighter, easy-drinking beer around 4% alcohol; a 12° (dvanáctka, or ležák) is a fuller lager nearer 5%. We'll teach you to order like a local, decode the menu with confidence, and understand why two beers that look almost identical can taste worlds apart.

Which Czech beer styles will we taste?

You'll taste a curated range of styles, so you can find what you love. Expect classic světlý ležák (pale lager), tmavé pivo (dark), and a nefiltrované or kvasnicové beer (unfiltered, cloudy with yeast) — and, where available, polotmavé (amber) or řezané, the striking "cut" beer layered from pale and dark lager. Across a handful of small servings you'll compare crisp, malty, sweet and hoppy character side by side, guided by someone who can explain precisely what you're tasting and why each style developed.

Authentic pubs and small breweries — not tourist traps

We take you to carefully selected traditional pubs and small local breweries — historic beer halls we know well and hidden spots most tourists never find. Because the route is ours and the group is yours alone, we skip the commercialised tourist bars in favour of the real thing: the unhurried hospoda where locals gather and beer is poured with pride. Venues may vary by day, season and availability, so we can always bring you the freshest beer and the best atmosphere. The exact route is shared after booking.

Beer with food, the Czech way

Czechs rarely drink without something to eat, and the snacks are half the fun. Alongside your beer you can try traditional pivní občerstvení — utopenec (a pickled "drowned" sausage), nakládaný hermelín (marinated soft cheese), pivní sýr (beer cheese), klobása or smažený sýr (fried cheese). These hearty bites balance the beer, slow the pace and round out the experience. Vegetarian options are easy to find, so there's something for everyone at the table.

Is a private tour right for you?

Because this is a fully private tour, you set the rhythm. Want to linger over a favourite beer, dig deeper into brewing, slow down, finish early or extend? Just say the word — it's your group and your tour. The experience is intended for adults of legal drinking age (18+ in Czechia), and your licensed local guide is here to share knowledge and good company, not to rush you between stops.

You can browse all our private Prague tours and day trips from Prague if you are planning more.

What's Included

Licensed guide
Private tour

What's NOT Included

Beer tastings and food (paid separately on site by cash or card)

FAQ

No. This is a private, cultural beer tour focused on tasting and learning, not drinking games or nightclubs. We visit authentic pubs and small breweries at a relaxed pace, so you genuinely experience Czech beer culture in good company.

The tour runs around two hours, the typical length for this format. Because it's private, you can slow down, finish a little early or extend the experience — your group sets the pace, not a fixed schedule.

Not unless you want to. The pace is manageable, servings are small, and you'll always have food alongside your beer. You decide how much you drink — many guests sip and compare styles rather than finishing every glass.

Not at all. The tour is designed for complete beginners and enthusiasts alike. Your guide explains everything from scratch — the styles, the Plato scale, how to order — so you'll leave knowing far more than when you arrived.

You'll typically sample several different styles in small servings, so you can compare pale, dark, unfiltered and other beers without overdoing it. Tastings are paid separately on site, so you're free to try more or fewer.

Food isn't included in the price but is available to buy on site. You can try traditional beer snacks such as utopenec, nakládaný hermelín, beer cheese, sausage or fried cheese — hearty bites that pair perfectly with the beer.

Yes. Czech pubs serve vegetarian-friendly beer snacks such as nakládaný hermelín (marinated soft cheese), beer cheese and smažený sýr (fried cheese), so vegetarians always have good options at the table.

The legal drinking age in Czechia is 18 for all alcoholic beverages, including beer. This tour is intended for adults aged 18 and over; we cannot serve beer to anyone under that age, even with parents present.