Isn’t it funny how you can overlook something that’s right there under your nose?

I do it all the time. Like snow for example. There’s lots of it up here in the north of Sweden but it took several years before I realised you could actually use it to ski on.

Primator Premium Dark is the first of three Primator beers I'm reviewing.

The same thing regularly happens to me when I visit my local Systembolaget store. I tread the same well-worn path through the isles, instinctively searching out the small orange markers that denote a new beer is in town. Failing that I tend to switch into autopilot, heaping bottles of beers I am on familiar terms with into my shopping basket.

I rarely seem to stray from this regime, and therein lies my problem because there’s no doubt I am guilty of overlooking beers that deserve some space in my fridge back home.

Primator Premium Dark is one such beer. This dark lager from the Pivovar Nachod in the Czech Republic is a multi-award winning brew, having been voted the World’s Best Dark Lager in 2008 by the British ‘Beers of the World’ magazine.

The Pivovar Nachod brewery dates back to 1872 and first registered the Nachodsky Primator brand name (the predecessor of the current dark beer) in 1935.  Since 2006 the brewery has undergone some radical modernisation but still uses only Czech ingredients in all is beers, including South Moravian malts and spring water from an underground lake in the Adrpach National Park.

All very interesting stuff for a beer I’ve overlooked for months and months. So what’s it like then?

Primator Premium Dark pours a, well, dark russet brown with a slightly off-white head. The smell is all malts, with freshly baked brown bread, treacle, muscovado sugar and raisin juice.

It is naturally quite sweet to taste, but there’s just enough hop bite to avoid it becoming too sticky sweet. There’s also an underlying mineral taste – I assume from the water – that increases the drinkability factor considerably.

This is great beer and for me (a die-hard ale drinker) it’s altogether more interesting than its paler lager cousins. I can imagine it would pair really well with shellfish and practically any meat from the BBQ, as well as Asian dishes with some spicy heat that require a little sweetness to lift the flavours.

Primator Premium Dark

A Dark Lager from Pivovar Nachod, Czech Republic

4.8% ABV

Systembolaget Article Number: 1615

Březňák has a label that is actually more interesting than the beer itself.

Who, I wondered when I picked up the bottle was the jolly-looking man with the glass of beer, a cigar and a smug smile on his face staring out at me? He looks a bit like a cross between Swedish strongman Magnus Samuelsson and Winston Churchill with a beard and with shoulders so wide he probably had difficulty clapping his hands.

Turns out his name is Victor Cibich, or Mr Zippich when translated into German, who it is said used to work as a postman in the town of Velke Brezno where Březňák is brewed and agreed to put his face to the beer in return for 30 pints of free beer for the remainder of his life.*

Mr Zippich was a German-speaking Czech Jew which was somewhat ironic as the brewery was a well known supporter of the Nazi party during the Second World War when it proudly supplied beer to Rommel’s Afrikakorps.

So where were we? Oh yes…..the beer itself. Březňák is a bohemian pilsner style beer brewed with the typical Saaz hops of the region that gives it a very pleasant medium bitterness.

The malts are a little harsh and smell like a bowl of muesli but the beer is softened by the floral spiciness of the hops and a faint honey sweetness.

I always say as a general rule of thumb that any beer that comes out of the Czech Republic is worth pouring into your glass as this beer-loving nation insists on high standards when it comes to the quality of its brews.

After trying Březňák I’m still sticking to this rule. Worth a try and a solid beer to drink with shellfish and seafood.

(* If there are any breweries reading this that would like to have a similar arrangement you know where to contact me).

Březňák – a bohemian pilsner-style beer from Drinks Union in the Czech Republic

5.1% ABV

Article Number: 1611