As Exports Soar, the Czech Republic’s World-Record Beer Consumption Is Slumping

When you’re the world champion, all eyes are on your next move — even when it comes to putting away cold ones. Last month, the Czech Beer and Malt Association announced what many saw as unwelcome and apparently shocking news: In the country that regularly drinks the most beer per capita, consumption dropped last year, down to 126 liters, or just over 266 foam-capped 16-ounce mugs for every Czech citizen, including newborns.

The news made headlines outside the Czech Republic as well as at home, with articles highlighting the precipitous decline from the country’s beer-drinking apex of 163.5 liters per capita in 2005. Writers suggested various reasons for the decrease, including higher taxes introduced in 2023, growing non-alcoholic beer sales, locals “opting for sobriety,” or even a ban on late-night guided pub crawls in Prague. In addition to sinking domestic sales, articles noted, exports rose to a new high, making it seem like a clear switch: Locals are drinking less, so Czech brewers are being forced to sell more abroad.

But when you talk to people here, the situation is far more nuanced. To start, they’ll point out that the amount Czechs consumed in 2024 — 126 liters — is only slightly down from the 128 liters they drank in 2023. Though the sales tax on draft beer did increase in 2023, it wasn’t a gigantic jump, shifting from 15 to 21 percent, the same rate that was applied to some draft beer sales before the pandemic. Banning organized group pub crawls in Prague after 10 p.m. wouldn’t actually hurt beer sales, one local told The Guardian. And while the overall amount of beer consumed by Czechs did decrease, folks at some of the country’s craft producers say that wasn’t the case everywhere.

A Highly Stratified Market

“I don’t think these numbers are really representative of what is going on in the market,” says Dan Hojdar, CEO at Vinohradský Pivovar, a leading craft brewery in Prague. “I don’t think it went down for small breweries.”

If craft producers didn’t really feel the crunch, Hojdar does note that the overall Czech beer business has changed a lot in recent years, becoming more competitive, even in the once-chummy world of small breweries.

That might sound similar to how things have changed elsewhere. But what most outsiders don’t get is the pronounced stratification of the Czech brewing landscape. Today, there are around 550 breweries in the Czech lands, though most of those — over 500 — are small to tiny, operating as neighborhood brewpubs or at most regional producers. By contrast, the well-established big brands are absolutely enormous. Just one group of four big breweries — Pilsner Urquell, Radegast, Gambrinus, and Velkopopovický Kozel, all owned by Asahi — regularly accounts for around 60 percent of all Czech beer production. Staropramen and Ostravar, both owned by Molson Coors, turn out about 15 percent. Heineken ČR has three breweries, Starobrno, Krušovice, and Velké Březno, which account for close to 10 percent. The Czech Republic’s beloved national brewery, Budweiser Budvar, currently produces just under 10 percent.

That intense concentration means that just four CEOs are making decisions that affect about 95 percent of the Czech Republic’s beer. A major issue at any one of those makers could change the numbers for the country as a whole.

And while some of their beers are great, much of that 95 percent is mass-market lager, where price is the determining factor. One of the big trends in recent years, Hojdar says, has seen locals drinking less, combined with premiumization. That hits high-volume producers in two ways, while it offers at least one advantage to small brewers.

“These younger people, they don’t drink that much,” Hojdar says. “And when they drink, they don’t really focus on the price. The people who come to our pub have no problem buying the most expensive beer that we have.”

“We’re glad that it gets out of the Czech Republic, but it is not growing and it’s definitely not the biggest market for us.”

Premiumization is also happening within the mass-market lager category itself. For more than a century, the vast majority of what Czechs drank was in the medium-strength, generally cheaper category called výčepní (roughly meaning “taproom”), which has around 4 percent alcohol. But in 2018, ležák (meaning “lager”) beers, with about 5 percent ABV, started outselling the medium-strength “taproom” category, a trend that has increased since. If you are at all limited by the amount of alcohol you can consume, drinking ležák means you’ll need to stop earlier, compared to a session on lower-grade beer.

Another factor: More and more Czechs are drinking at home, versus in pubs or restaurants, a trend that has been widely reported for years. If having a drink means opening something after work in your apartment, you might just buy what’s easiest to carry up the stairs. That could be four bottles of ležák, instead of five bottles of výčepní. (Or, God forbid, it might be a single bottle of Moravian wine.)

Record Production and Exports

While Czech beer exports are clearly growing, that’s mostly happening at the big brands, not among small producers, explains Michal Voldřich, president of the Czech-Moravian Association of Microbreweries.

“For most microbreweries, export is a very marginal matter, more like a marketing tool,” he says.

That’s roughly how cross-border sales line up at Pivovar Matuška, one of the country’s best craft breweries and the only Czech maker to pick up a medal — in fact, a gold — at this year’s World Beer Cup. According to managing director Matěj Šůcha, the brewery’s exports have been steady for years, comprising about 5 percent of total sales, most of which go to neighboring Slovakia.

“It is not a significant part for us,” he says. “We’re glad that it gets out of the Czech Republic, but it is not growing and it’s definitely not the biggest market for us.”

“Over the past two years, the number of microbreweries producing non-alcoholic beer has almost doubled. Brewers really demonstrate their craft with these beers. The move away from stronger, higher-gravity beers is clearly visible.”

Contrast that to a major producer like Staropramen, which sends about 20 percent of its beer abroad, or Budweiser Budvar, which exports a whopping 85 percent of its production. Last year, that state-owned company reported hitting a new production record while also increasing its domestic sales by an impressive 1.7 percent. Its exports gained even more, jumping by 4 percent.

At Vinohradský Pivovar, exports to Denmark and the U.K. have helped fuel the company’s recent growth, pushing it past the 10,000-hectoliter (about 8,500-barrel) limit used to define a microbrewery by the association. Greater appreciation for traditional lager and a decreasing interest in craft novelty helped those sales, Hojdar says.

At Pivovar Matuška, Šůcha says he’s seen similar changes.

“We also noticed that people are not so interested in new beers anymore. They’re more interested in our core beers.”

Higher Quality, Lower Quantity

Though overall Czech beer consumption has been trending downward, members of the microbreweries association aren’t seeing quite the same shift. While their production numbers did drop in 2024, Voldřich says, that change was mainly caused by several small breweries, like Vinohradský Pivovar, growing so large that they “graduated” from membership in the association.

Small producers also aren’t enjoying the same success as large breweries when it comes to non-alcoholic beer, which has been growing steadily for over 12 years, now accounting for almost 10 percent of the domestic beer market, apparently also cutting into sales of mass-market lagers. That said, N/A beer is not a total loss for Czech brewing. Tomáš Slunečko, executive director of the Czech Beer and Malt Association, another trade group, says that drinking more N/A beer supports local barley and hop growers, as well as the hospitality trade — just like regular Czech lager.

“Non-alcoholic beer is firmly established in both Czech beer culture and pub culture,” he says. “In pubs it offers an important alternative for patrons who want to meet friends but either cannot or do not wish to drink alcoholic beer.”

That might be true, but if you order non-alcoholic beer here, it’s almost certainly going to come from a big producer. Both Vinohradský Pivovar and Pivovar Matuška say they’re reluctant to move forward with N/A beers, generally finding the quality below their standards. Hojdar believes that the expense of producing N/A beer might permanently keep that category in the hands of the big guys. However, Voldřich says that more small Czech brewers are jumping into the fray.

“Over the past two years, the number of microbreweries producing non-alcoholic beer has almost doubled,” he says. Another coming change? A new wave of lower-gravity “specials,” brewed below the výčepní category, but with an eye on more flavor and character. “Brewers really demonstrate their craft with these beers. The move away from stronger, higher-gravity beers is clearly visible,” Voldřich says.

As with all things, the changes in the Czech beer market can be seen in different ways. Yes, the world’s greatest beer-drinking nation is consuming less, which some might find disappointing. But what the Czechs are consuming less of is relatively boring, mass-market lager, while higher-quality, more charismatic beer appears to be holding steady. Šůcha says he sees a clear preference for quality over quantity, as well as better service and atmosphere.

“People no longer want to drink 10 beers,” he says. “They would rather have three beers that are perfectly taken care of, perfectly poured, and served in a nice, clean glass.”

That broader shift appears to have beneficial effects beyond more sensible alcohol consumption. While the Czech capital is growing, many small Czech towns are struggling with big demographic shifts. Outside of Prague, Voldřich notes, it can be hard to find a place where people can sit down and talk as neighbors.

“We are losing our social, cultural, and community life in villages,” he says. “Small breweries are often the last places in these regions with any kind of social life.”

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