We all know how many brands of beer there are in our country. To be different on the Czech beer market, we chose to produce traditional unpasteurised beer, brewed with craftsmanship and the best ingredients. Thanks to these traditional procedures, Bernard beer is distinguished by its harmony of fullness and bitterness.

Three things make Bernard an exceptional beer:

• The first is the recipe, specific to the Bernard brand.
• The second is ingredients. High quality malt, produced in our own Bernard floor malt house in Rajhrad u Brna, where traditional production methods are maintained. Likewise, we use the highest quality Czech barley, which guarantees the correct bitterness. Furthermore, spring water from the Czech Moravian highlands has ideal characteristics for beer brewing.
• Lastly, there’s the unique procedure of the beer’s final treatment­ microfiltration, which makes Bernard a truly exceptional beer.

The Family Brewery in Humpolec is still growing, and not only in terms of the success of its products. Since the year 2000 it has acted as a joint stock company and in July 2001 it increased its base capital with the entry of a strategic partner, Duvel Moortgat (www) from the Belgian Kingdom.

Unpasteurised beer

Imagine that you are in a small family brewery in the heart of the Czech Moravian highlands. In its cellars, about 11 000 hl of beer FERMENTS and MATURES.

SLOWLY, like the traditional technology requires, at a temperature of 1­ – 2 °C, it WAITS for several weeks to months FOR ITS CUSTOMERS. When its time draws near, the beer is filtered at the same temperature through a bergmehl filter and awaits the last step before distribution ­ the final treatment.

When at the Bernard Family Brewery we were deciding what this step should look like, we had two options to choose from. PASTEURISATION­ meaning the standard and simple route ­ or the second, far more complicated route, but one which guaranteed the unique features of the beer ­“MICROFILTRATION”.

During pasteurisation, the beer is heated to a temperature of over 80 °C, which eliminates all microorganisms present in the beer. This drastic treatment, when the beer is given a shock by being “torn” from the calm of the lager cellar, guarantees a longer lifetime for the beer, but damages its taste and colour.

At the Bernard Family Brewery, we therefore decided to use the second, original alternative. It is more demanding, but certainly more honest towards consumers. At the end of the process, while the beer retains its temperature of 2 °C, we filter it through a special microbe filter, in which all the microorganisms are trapped.

Thus the beer does not change in flavour or aroma and you really get what we took care of for so long in the lager cellar.