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Budweiser American Ale

FEATURES

Czech Independents

from Marx to Markets

by Marshall Dunlap

Portland Brewing Picture

Introduction • From Marx to Marketing
• Wooing Conservative Drinkers
• Battling the Competition
• Rebel Yell • Marketing to the High End
• Blue Blood Brewing • Strength in Strength
• Lasting Loyalties

"The consumer who buys our beer is willing to spend extra money
to have the best."

Marketing to the High End

Not far down the road from Havlickuv Brod in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands is the town of Humpolec. Humpolec shares more than just a picturesque environment with Havlickuv Brod, though; it is also home to an ambitious local brewery by the name of Rodinny Pivovar Bernard (Bernard Family Brewery). Like its regional neighbor, the Bernard Brewery takes advantage of the pristine waters of the Bohemian-Moravian highlands in producing its brews, which are combined with an exclusive range of ingredients stipulated by special Bernard family recipes. The brewery produces a variety of traditional Czech lagers, including pale beers in three strengths, a semi-dark "garnet,” and a strong seasonal lager, Holiday Beer.

Where the Bernard brewery differs considerably from many of its competitors is in its pricing strategy. Unlike the majority of Czech breweries, Bernard has made an active decision to market its beer to the upper end of the market. In a country where virtually all beer is produced in the same basic style, the brewery’s objective is to serve a discerning clientele conscious of the extra expense involved in producing the very highest quality beer.

Stanislav Bernard, co-owner of the brewery, defends his decision to aim for the higher end of the market. "Recently, " he said, "for economic reasons there has been a trend among breweries to mass produce a very middle-of-the-line quality beer, the so-called eurobeer. Our brewery has never considered this avenue. To the contrary, we offer a highly refined product—which the large breweries are unable to deliver—to a distinguished segment of the market. The consumer who buys our beer is willing to spend extra money to have the best."

One result of this strategy is that Bernard beer does not depend upon a localized consumer base to the same extent as other Czech breweries. While one is more likely to find Bernard beer in and around Humpolec, the label is distributed widely throughout the country to exclusive restaurants and retail outlets.

The Bernard brewery is one of the smaller producers on the market. Stanislav Bernard estimates that his brewery sells less than 1 percent of the beer in the country. However, he notes, as far as "premium" beers go, the Bernard label has approximately an 8 percent share of that market. And the brewery’s upscale marketing is proving to be successful. After years of investment and financial losses, Bernard expects to turn a profit in 1999.

Blue Blood Brewing

Located in the town of Vysoky Chlumec amid the forested, rolling hills of the central Czech countryside, the Lobkowicz Brewery and its surroundings are quintessentially Bohemian. Founded in 1466, the brewery was purchased eight years later by the Lobkowicz family and, except for the period from 1938 to 1992, has been owned by the family ever since. As members of one of the oldest aristocratic families in Europe, Lobkowicz sons and daughters have played a role in Bohemian and European politics and culture for centuries.

After escaping the terror of the Nazis in 1938, the family returned to Bohemia following World War II in time to see the brewery along with the rest of their property nationalized by the communist government in 1948. Only in 1992 were the family’s former holdings, including the brewery, returned to them as part of the post-communist program of privatization and restitution to former owners. American-born William Lobkowicz took over management of the family’s properties and had to make difficult decisions concerning what to do with a mountain of dilapidated assets. One decision was easy: money from the sale of other properties was invested into the brewery to keep a 500-year family tradition alive.

The roster of beers produced by the Lobkowicz Brewery reveals the family’s royal roots. Their pale lager goes by the name of Princ, while the heavier and stronger version is known as Knize (both words mean "prince" in Czech). A dark lager goes by the title of Baron and, fittingly, the Lobkowicz Brewery produces an Austrian lager, Kaiser, under license. The newest member of the brand hints at a dark side of the clan’s medieval background: a mahogany lager called Demon is produced with three varieties of malt and two types of hops, producing a 5.4 percent abv beer, the style of which originated in the 15th century.

All of the Lobkowicz beers make use of Czech barley malted in the brewery’s own malt house. The malt is of such high quality that it is also supplied to a number of other breweries. Saaz hops and water from the brewery’s artesian wells complete the list of authentic, purely Bohemian ingredients.

The Lobkowicz brewery’s output of 65,000 hectoliters annually ranks it as diminutive among Czech breweries and, as such, makes it vulnerable to competition from other domestic producers. However,the Lobkowicz beers enjoy one particular advantage, in addition to their crisp, unmistakably Bohemian flavor: their widely recognized name. Centuries of high flying among Czech and other European nobility have made "Lobkowicz" a word that rolls off tongues in Bohemia more readily than "Sam Adams" does in America. And part of William Lobkowicz’s marketing strategy is to maintain that recognition.

An enthusiastic supporter of Czech arts and culture, the Lobkowicz family continues to enjoy a high profile by sponsoring exhibitions, festivals and other events, including an annual beer festival at the brewery in Vysoky Chlumec. It’s all part of a family tradition. Although members traveled far and wide through the centuries, the output of the brewery back home in Vysoky Chlumec continues to be one of the family’s most important contributions to Bohemian culture.

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NEXT: Strength in Strength

This story originally appeared in All About Beer Magazine in January 2000.


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