Pepinova desítka, Francinův ležák, Něžný Barbar — the names on our shelves are characters from a novel.
Pivovar Nymburk was granted its brewing rights by royal decree in 1895, and the first batch came out of the new brewhouse on 19 March 1898. For most of the twentieth century that would have been the whole story — a competent regional brewery on the Elbe, one of hundreds.
What makes Nymburk different is that a boy grew up on its grounds. Bohumil Hrabal's stepfather Francin managed the brewery, and his uncle Josef — Pepin — turned up for a two-week visit and stayed forty years. Hrabal turned all of it into Postřižiny, published in English as Cutting It Short: a novel about his mother cutting her hair short, his uncle shouting, and the brewery humming away underneath.
The book made the place famous, and the brewery has embraced it without embarrassment. The beer is branded Postřižinské. Pepin has a 10° named after him — loud, cheerful, uncomplicated, which anyone who has read the book will find funny. Francin, the responsible one, gets the premium 12° lager. Něžný Barbar takes its name from another Hrabal title. And on the centenary of his birth the brewery brewed Hrabalův ležák, the most aggressively hopped beer it makes.
None of this changes how the beer tastes. But it does mean a crate from Nymburk carries a footnote to Czech literature, which is more than most lagers can claim.
If you want to read the book first, it's short. If you'd rather drink first, start with Pepin.
