The opportunity to not only collaborate with but truly cooperate with the brewing teams at Pivovar Velké Popovice (Kozel) and Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell) has been rewarding and eye-opening. We are grateful for their immense expertise and openness to create a beer outside their comfort zone—at a scale outside our imagination.

Bringing a beer in the spirit of Edward—our American pale ale—to a tradition-steeped institution with nearly 200 years worth of lager brewing experience presents some challenges—and interesting opportunities—for learning and growth. The addition of flaked oats to the mash was a certainly novel idea in this brewery, not to mention the much more assertive hop additions! The size and scale of the operation created a surprising number of unconsidered variables, all of which the assembled team tackled with a sense of openness and enthusiasm.

A hearty děkuji to everyone involved with this project, especially those folks at the brewery who will continue to shepherd the beer towards success in our stead. This includes Daniel Urban, Jana Šťastná and the technologists at Pivovar Velké Popovice, as well as Martín Rosička and Lenka Straková of Plzeňský Prazdroj.

After a long and satisfying brewday, we now wait, monitor, and project forward optimism. The beer now rests in the brewery’s open fermentation chamber and will journey along a path set forth after much planning and consideration of the end goal: a balanced, hop-forward, sessionable pale ale that combines the sense of place across two continents with shared respect and admiration for tradition.