Once a year, always in September, the “Sun in a Glass” festival takes place at the Purkmistr Brewery. For beer lovers, this is the place and the time not to be missed!
Sun in a Glass is a festival of mini-breweries where more than 50 different mini-breweries from the Czech Republic and abroad present their beers. Visitors to the festival have the opportunity to taste around 150 different types of beer, including specialty beers.
The brewery is located just outside Pilsen, a good 6 kilometers from the main train station. It can be reached by bus number 13 and a short walk. A slightly quicker and more comfortable option is to take a cab.
Please leave your own car at home. For one thing, there are very few parking spaces and since you are sure to drink a beer at a beer festival, it doesn’t make sense to drive a car. In the Czech Republic the 0.0 per mille limit applies! The Czech police are familiar with this event and carry out the first checks directly on site.
Visit to the festival
When we arrived at the Purkmistr brewery and entered the courtyard, I was initially very surprised. There were exactly 2 beer stands and an empty stage. Was that all there was?
Not really, because just a few steps away in a larger square was what I had expected and hoped for – a beer stand next to the next beer stand. At first glance, I knew exactly one of these breweries, the Raven Brewery. I knew the beer and had already had a brief conversation with one of the brewers. Reason enough to start with this beer.
But before you start, you should make sure you have enough cash in your pocket. You can pay by card at a few stands, but unfortunately not at all of them! This came as a great surprise to some of our fellow travelers, who were traveling without cash and were therefore only able to enjoy limited beer.
What I particularly liked was that at each stand there was the opportunity to get just one small beer. The “tasting sip” varied between 0.1 and 0.2 liters, while the “normal size” was 0.33-0.5 liters. The small beers were priced at 25-35 Czech crowns. For me, the smaller quantity was simply great. I was able to try a beer at many different stands.
I would consider some of the beers to be very “experimental”. I had never had a beer with lime + salt before. You also rarely find “pink” beers, almost all of which went in the direction of sour beer. But of course there were also beers that could clearly be classified as IPA, APA or Pils. The selection was really difficult and on my next visit I really must go to the “Sonne im Glas” festival for two days to try even more.
Whether freshly tapped or from a can – the choice was huge. However, why you have to fill 1.5 liter plastic bottles with beer is a mystery to me. I think it makes the beer seem so “cheap” and less good. But it was really good and had a pleasantly rounded taste.
What else is there at the “Sun in a Glass” festival?
Of course you can buy something to eat. However, I would recommend booking a table at the Purkmistr brewery restaurant before your visit. We ate there and it was really very good.
Of course, you can also visit the Purkmistr brewery or book a wellness treatment in the spa area. I enjoyed a beer bath there and it was wonderfully relaxing.
In addition to the numerous beer stands, there are also two large stages where various music groups perform and small competitions take place.
Fancy the festival, beer and beer and beer? Then just check out the Pilsen Tourism website. There you will always find the latest information.
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