Milan Máca

"Bottom fermentation means that it's fermented in the entire volume of a vessel at relatively low temperatures. Fermentation ends when the yeast has eaten almost all the extract. As a brewer, you have to keep an eye on the process and stop it at the right time. It's not a red herring, it depends on what temperature you have and what yeast you use, it's a characteristic of the yeast, how much it wants to ferment. It's about not making what's called a europivo [eurobeer - transl.]. That is, beer so fermented that it can't go bad, there's nothing left to go bad. The yeast in bottom fermentation sits, sinks to the bottom, and makes sediment. Whereas the top yeast is much smaller, it stays on the surface, it picks up from the surface at the same time as the blanket. That's the foam that forms during the main fermentation."

"Yes, beer is tasted. The wort is already being tasted in the brewhouse. The wort is the first liquid edible part of the brewing process. It's the thermal leach from the malt, the crushed malt. It's sweet, it smells of honey and a little bit of caramel. In Pilsen, you drink it with rum, in Moravia, we drink it with vodka. Not because the Soviet army liberated us and the Americans liberated you, but because vodka leaves no other aftertaste. When you put the Božkov in it, you're just drinking warm rum."