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If you’re planning a beer trip in Czech Republic, you should organize your journey with the help of the Good Beer Guide to Prague and the Czech Republic, edited by Camra. This useful guide about the best beers of the country has an important feature: despite of what you could think, the author of the book is American. I’m talking about my friend Evan Rail, who in 2000 started his adventure in Europe and moved to one of the most beautiful cities of the continent: Prague. Here he writes about beer and manages his blog: Beer Culture. In this short interview, he’s going to explain his ideas, talking about interesting topics (first of all about beer prices). Enjoy it.

You was born and grew up in the United States. Why you decided to move from Usa to Prague and starting living and working there?

I’m not sure I know exactly, but I believe beer was involved. I can say that I feel lucky to have been in the Czech Republic for the past eight years: it’s fascinating to live in a country that is changing so rapidly and improving in so many ways. Of course Prague is a very beautiful city, which makes it easy, and the Czech countryside is even better.

You know very well the czech beer scene. What do you like and what dislike about this movement?

I would say that the real strength of the Czech beer culture is its history and long traditions, its complete and total mastery of lager brewing, as well as the abundance of some of the world’s best raw ingredients. However, the downside is that this often makes Czech beer culture quite inflexible, not open to outside influences, and it means that very few people here are even slightly familiar with beer styles other than Czech lagers. Nor do many people know about ingredients beyond the Czech border: there are no C-hops here, for example, and only two Czech breweries that I know of have ever made an IPA. The number of ales currently produced here could probably be counted on two hands. The country has about 400 very similar pale and dark lagers, and what, maybe nine or ten ales?

It seems like an important beer revolution is spreading out in Czech Rep., with influences in traditions and uses of this country. What’s your opinion about that?

Well, as I said, the Czech beer culture is very well established, so it’s not very open to new changes. But people here love beer, and, as is often repeated, drink more of it per capita than any other nation on earth: about 160 liters annually. That means that even though it’s a very small country, there is a huge market for beer, and there is room for more beer every day. And there is some kind of revolution happening, at least in terms of microbreweries and craft brewers. “Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic” was published in May of 2007 and included, I think, 102 Czech breweries. Since then — in just the last 18 months — about 20 new breweries have opened and two once-closed breweries have re-opened. And some of the new young guns, such as Pivovar Kocour Varnsdorf, are starting to make quality ales and other beer styles not typically associated with Bohemia and Moravia.

Czech Republic is one of european countries where beer is cheapest for the consumer. In Prague, a city with a cost of living similar to the big capital of the continent, beer is very cheaper than elsewhere. In your opinion the price of a beer is an important parameter? How can you explain those differencies?

I think the low price of beer here is both good and bad. In the first case, it means that people drink a lot of beer and like drinking beer, which is good, at least in terms of having a healthy beer culture. But because it is so cheap — and yes, a half-liter of beer is usually cheaper than a 330-ml glass of mineral water — people often treat beer as if it were of no value whatsoever. This makes it hard to develop an interest in special beers beyond traditional Czech lagers, because if you show someone an Imperial Stout of 10% ABV that’s been aged in a Scottish whisky cask for 15 months, a really magical beer that has very little to do with a glass of Czech Pilsner, they’ll complain that it costs too much. The low price and the ubiquitous familiarity (and wonderful flavors) of good lager means that it’s very hard to convince people that they should pay a little bit more for something extra special.

Some months ago you came to Italy and met italian beer culture. What you think about it?

I was honestly overwhelmed. Despite all I’d heard and read, I was truly surprised: Italian beer culture is very innovative, very dynamic and with a wonderful youthful exuberance that I found quite infectious. I also think the amount of knowledge about beer there is remarkable, and I found it wonderful that I could easily talk to people about pluses and minuses of different beers and different beer styles. By comparison, even in the most beer-crazy parts of Bavaria and Bohemia, people generally only know about their local beer, not beers from anywhere else, and even dedicated beer drinkers in those places would not be able to tell you about the ingredients in their local beer or how it was made. It’s as if the lack of a very deep beer tradition in Italy makes it easier to develop a wider appreciation for it. Maybe because there are no Italian noble hops, Italian brewers are free to use whatever they want. Whereas Czech brewers pretty much only use Saaz.

At last, what about your personal projects for the future?

I’m hoping to write another book, this time about beer culture around Europe, which hopefully will bring me back to Italy, and hopefully for a longer stay next time. I have to say the breweries I mentioned in the New York Times article — Birrificio Grado Plato, Birrificio Italiano, Le Baladin, Lambrate — are some of the best bars I’ve ever visited. And I couldn’t say enough nice things about Flavia Nasini and Vittorio Panzeri at A Tutta Birra, Lorenzo Dabove, the wonderful Enoteca Decanter beer restaurant in Milan, and the Oppale from 32 Via dei Birrei. If I could go back to Italy tomorrow, I would. Soon, I hope!