No tap? No beer. See where beer tanks and taps are made
We give beer a good name
Combine your love of beer with one of our courses, beer walks or business events. You'll learn how to spot a good pour, and how to do it yourself. Wherever you might be.
It starts almost like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, there were three brothers. The oldest, Svatopluk, became a chemist, the youngest, Josef, helps open breweries all over the world and the middle one, Lubomir, founded the LUKR company, where they created the tapping technology and sanitation products. And since Svatopluk is behind the composition of sanitisers, the fate of an entire generation revolves around beer.
But when we meet Lubomir Krýsl in his home village of Letiny, where LUKR is based, his story is far from a fairy tale. Right at the beginning, he touches on the topic of plagiarism and protracted lawsuits. Although he patented the technology he invented and created, this did not prevent it from being copied. After an introduction about these futile fights, he takes us through to a former farmhouse that he has turned into a workshop.
All for beer
LUKR is well established in this country and abroad, as manufacturer of the branded beer taps Nostalgia and Baroque, which are associated with Czech beer culture. However, there is much more going on in a relatively small space. In the first workshop, we see how PET beer bottles are created from plastic cartridges.
From a heated preform, the machine creates a bottle in seconds, including the customer's logo. It's small batch production that satisfies the demand of microbreweries and other smaller clients. The adjacent room then functions as a chemical laboratory, where cleaning agents for washing beer glassware and sanitising beer paths are created.
Another workshop is used to repair and refurbish beer taps, but most of the space is taken up by a machine for making beer bags, which are used to fill beer tanks. Lubomír Krýsl had it built according to his own design, so it's unique, but at the same time a very sensitive thing with regard to the aforementioned plagiarism. As evidenced by the ban on photography.
The machine welds layers of plastic film together using ultrasound, creating the bag in minutes. The largest advantage of beer bags is the ease of handling — once inserted into the tank, they unroll as they are filled with the beer from. As a result, the beer does not come into contact with the air and thus does not ferment and stays fresh longer. Last but not least, it greatly simplifies the sanitation of the beer tanks themselves.
The last of the workshops is dedicated to the production of beer tanks. First, the sheets are cut and the other components are prepared. Then comes the assembly, which takes about three hours for a brewery or tap tank. Finally, the surface is polished to resemble a mirror.
Declining demand
Although LUKR is one of the few companies that produce beer tanks, both in this country and in Europe, this workshop was not in operation at the time of our visit. While the number of establishments that have added tanks to their taprooms has been growing over the past decade, this technology is almost immortal, and so the market has gradually become saturated and demand has fallen.
In addition to the company's headquarters in Letiny, we also visited the Pilsen outlet, which includes a brewery. Participants of the course could see LUKR technology in action, and enjoy carefully treated and properly tapped beer.
And what did we take away from the excursion? "LUKR is the most prominent company involved in brewing technology in our country. They continue the tradition of the old taps, constantly pushing their production further — and I dare say they do it the best in the world. That's why we work with them in our restaurants. Personally, I can't get enough of Baroko," says Lucie Janečková from the PIVO Institute.
Lukáš Tomsa, the brewer at Dva kohouti, also enjoyed the tour. "It was interesting to get to know in detail the technological end of the journey that beer has to take before it is poured into a pint."
