The breweries. In 1948 every kettle in the land was nationalised into the krajské pivovary — regional beer combines with heraldic mats and hop-cone pride. The beer stayed excellent. It was the one promise the regime kept.
First, the units of measurement. Desítka for the shift, dvanáctka for the Sunday — prices set by decree and defended like the border.
The people's breweries, county by county
EV.Č. — HLAVNÍ DŮKAZU Fleků, Praha — brewing on Křemencova since 1499. The oldest brewpub on Earth spent forty years as a national enterprise and never missed a batch. The clock on the mat is the famous one in the courtyard; the waiter still marks your rounds on the rim.
The combines: north, east, Prague. Coats of arms, cathedral silhouettes, a barrel and a full glass — brewery mats kept the old heraldry alive when heraldry was officially bourgeois.
EV.Č. 001 · BRANICKÉ PIVO · PRAHA
EV.Č. 002 · SEVEROČESKÉ PIVOVARY N.P.
EV.Č. 003 · SEVEROČESKÉ · VĚNEC
EV.Č. 004 · VÝCHODOČESKÉ PIVOVARY
EV.Č. 005 · VÝCHODOČESKÉ · HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ
EV.Č. 006 · PIVOVAR SVITAVY · 1888–1968Ostrava brewed for steelworkers and called them gourmets. A boar for Přeštice, a factory panorama for Lanškroun, and two anonymous beauties — the hop spiral and the harvest jug — drawn by artists nobody credited.
EV.Č. 007 · OSTRAVAR · ONDRÁŠ
EV.Č. 008 · PIVOVAR OSTRAVA · PRO LABUŽNÍKY
EV.Č. 009 · PŘEŠTICE · KANEC
EV.Č. 010 · LANŠKROUNSKÉ PIVO
EV.Č. 011 · CHMEL · SPIRÁLA
EV.Č. 012 · ŽNĚ · DŽBÁNTwo bottle labels found pressed between the mats: the Litoměřice Councillor at a heroic 14%, and the Captain of Děčín, rated 11 degrees, price 2,30 Kčs printed on the label because the price was law.
EV.Č. 013 · LITOMĚŘICKÝ KONŠEL 14%
EV.Č. 014 · KAPITÁN 11° · DĚČÍNThree pubs entered in the file
The vulture of U Supa has watched Celetná street since 1891; U Schnellů poured for Malá Strana across every regime; and the King John in Znojmo wore its crown quietly. Pubs with names older than the republic — any republic.
EV.Č. 015 · U SUPA · 1891
EV.Č. 016 · U SCHNELLŮ
EV.Č. 017 · U KRÁLE JANA · ZNOJMOAnd for the wine drinkers — the vinárna mats, hand-lettered grapes and fruit wreaths, printed for the south where the vineyards never read Marx.
EV.Č. 018 · VINÁRNA · NAVŠTIVTE NAŠI
EV.Č. 019 · POHOSTINSTVÍ · HROZNY
EV.Č. 020 · VÍNO · HROZNY
EV.Č. 021 · OVOCNÝ VĚNEC