Staropramen Brewery

See those red brick industrial buildings across the way? That's where Staropramen has been brewing beer since 1869. The name means old spring in Czech, and it's not just clever branding. The brewery sits directly on natural springs that have been flowing here for centuries. When it opened, Staropramen was one of the first breweries in Austria Hungary to use bottom fermentation. This was cutting edge technology in the 1860s. It produced clearer, more stable beer than the traditional top fermented methods everyone else was using. But the springs weren't just about making good beer. In the 1860s, access to clean water meant power. The brewery's founders fought a lengthy legal battle to secure exclusive rights to the spring water flowing beneath this site. They won. Their competitors had to look elsewhere. By 1900, Staropramen was producing over 100,000 hectoliters annually. The red brick buildings you see went up in stages as the brewery expanded. The original 1869 structure is still part of the complex you're looking at. During the communist era from 1948 to 1989, the brewery was nationalized. Production continued, but innovation froze. After the Velvet Revolution, everything changed. International companies moved in. Staropramen exports to over 50 countries.