Bratislava

[Blueshed]

Just back from a weekend in Bratislava and decided to do up a summary of my trip. if anyone would care to add some more then feel free plus maybe we could get a few more similar city breaks covered.

Capital city of Slovakia  , currency is euro, flight over was 2hr 10min and back was 2hr 30min. We used a local taxi app called Hopintaxi and found it very efficient and cheap. €8 from airport to out hotel and same price going back to airport.

we stayed in Morrals boutique hotel, very nice if with your better half, probably to nice if away with the lads.

I'll get the Irish, English and Scottish bars out of the way first.

The Dubliner Pub,  didnt spot any Irish staff, very large pub, indoor smoking area, NO dark lager and pilsner beer was €2.50. Wasn't a fan, only had the 1 beer.

Goblins - large cellar bar, No dark lager, €2.30 a beer.

Uisce Beatha - Small cellar bar, owner from Tipp, edge of old town, no stag parties allowed, No dark lager, pilsner was €1.70.

Red Lion English bar - terrible spot, had 1 bottle of dark lager €2.50.

LoughNess Scottish bar - Small bar, staff local lads, Dark lager was €2.30.

next up some craft beer spots, Craft Beer Gallery is attached to the Eurova shopping centre. large modern bar with 25 different beers and cider on tap. i had 3 local craft beers at €6.20
BE Unorthodox - A small hipster type spot, 9 beers on tap, plenty of good bottles. Session IPA was €4.20, Saison €3.60

100 PIV - a very small bottle shop with 6 beers on tap, very nice local lads running it who in to there beers. 4 small local beers cost €6.50.

Spent most of the weekend in Slovakian pubs drinking dark lagers and eating local food.

Slovak Pub - very large pub, food was very good, big portions, Dark lager was €1.90. Recommended.
Venturska Klubovna - Modern beer hall type pun. 10 local craft beers on tap, mainly from Sladovna brewery. Food was the best i had all weekend.
Alzbetka - Again another large modern brewpub, 8 beers on draught, food looked amazing, semi dark lager was €2.10
Pivnice u Kozla - large cellar bar, good traditional food, Kozel dark lager was €1.80.

Krcma na zelenej - restaurant with good simple food, dinner between €8 - €14. Saris dark lager €2.40

Pod Kamennym Stromom - very cool little cellar bar, Bernard dark lager €2.10

Thema - modern bar close to the river, no dark lager, €1.80 for a Frambor pilsner

KGB - Cellar bar covered in memoraibila from USSR  era.Staropramen bar with dark lager €1.90

Beer Palace - fancy brew pub, no dark lager when we called . Pilsner Urquell was €2.10

[irish_goat]

I love Bratislava. Been a few times now. Did you try the wine? It's even cheaper than the beer, place beside our hostel was doing it for 50c a glass. Pint of the local lager was a pricey €1 in comparison.

[Blueshed]

Wife had a few glasses of white which she found a bit sweet, much preferred the red.

[phildo79]

4 small local beers cost €6.50.

Do you mean each or that was the grand total? I thought Slovakia was supposed to be cheap.

And is dark lager a thing over there or do you mean pilsner or any lager that isn't the same colour as Bud / Coors?

[irish_goat]

Wife had a few glasses of white which she found a bit sweet, much preferred the red.

Aye I only ever drank the red myself as well.

And is dark lager a thing over there or do you mean pilsner or any lager that isn't the same colour as Bud / Coors?

It'd be fairly common to find dark lager across Eastern Europe. Makes a nice change to just drinking the standard yellow stuff when you're abroad but it's still a lager at the end of the day.
BJCP style guideline is here - https://beerrecipes.org/BJCP-2015-Style/11/3d-czech-dark-lager.html

[phildo79]

It'd be fairly common to find dark lager across Eastern Europe. Makes a nice change to just drinking the standard yellow stuff when you're abroad but it's still a lager at the end of the day.
BJCP style guideline is here - https://beerrecipes.org/BJCP-2015-Style/11/3d-czech-dark-lager.html
[/quote]

Ah ok. I see what you mean. For a moment I thought you meant something really dark like a black lager. I've been to several eastern bloc countries and the local lager / pilsner is usually pretty decent / decently priced. Makes you wonder how so many pubs in Ireland can't pour a half decent tasting pint. And it isn't just because you're on holiday and in a good mood. I refuse to believe my taste buds change depending on longitude and latitude.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I am going to assume that the black lager is a close relative of Czech tmavé pivo. Generally considered better than the Schwartzbier a few miles up north (which is typically the local helles/pils with added sinnamar).

All across europe you are going to find local lagers that beat up the yellow fizz that you get back in Ireland and the UK (I remember being very impressed with Greek lager: Mythos & Kaiser in particular - Mythos turns up very cheaply in LIDL every few months - like 7e x 6 x 330ml cans - when i does, get the big trolley).

Most of the low abv lagers that you get here are mixed in with some kind of 100% fermentable simple sugar. Your can of carlsberg is about 1/3 corn syrup, which will leave no flavour behind in a lager. The amount of malt is only sufficient to get it to ~ 2.8% ABV. Continental lager OTOH is usually all malt. So you compare it with a 5% continental pilsner, you will have twice as much flavour in the pivo.

In fact you will have more flavour in the Czech light lager (10-degree plato) weighing in at 3.7% ABV or whatever (it will also have hops in it too).

Its not the pubs ruining the lager in Ireland. Its already miserly in the keg to begin with.

[phildo79]

Well yeah, fizzy yellow piss tastes the same everywhere. You'd think with all these new breweries opening up, there's be a few more draught options in the pubs. Can't speak for the rest of the country but the bars in Belfast that have those options are VERY thin on the ground.

But hey, why would you need choice when you can just have a pint of Hop House 13? It's double hopped, don't ya know!