Imagine a place where the rivers run amber with sweet, sweet craft lager. A place where we’re paid in pints of our favourite brews. A place where research and development amounts to pushing the boundaries of beer understanding, flavour and style, where stouts, porters, IPAs and pale ales stand side-by-side as brothers in beer. A place where you finish at 2 on a Friday and are expected, neigh, obliged, to show up in the nearest beer garden with your buds. A place we can finally call home. Beertopia.

Ok, so maybe it’s a tad unrealistic. I mean, who would tidy up? And who would drive us up the road after four double strength IPAs? How would anything ever get done?

In fact, it’s a pretty terrible idea, but we’ve got the best next thing. We’re raising a big beery toast to the most important cities in beer history, and for all intents and purposes, the towns without which beer as we know it would not exist. When’s your next holiday again?

Munich

The world’s beer capital and a beer-haven in the middle of Bavaria. Munich is home to innumerable breweries (although it probably is numerable), one of the world’s richest beer cultures and of course, the world-renowned Oktoberfest. Although it might appear all fraulines, lederhosen and smoked sausage, Munich’s role in the spread, industrialisation and development of beer tastes can’t be understated.

They invented the cold-pressed lager (the most common beer style around), they were the first to add hops, meaning beer lasted longer and tasted fresher, and created Reinheitsgebot – a purity law from 1516 that is still in place which allows only water, yeast, hops and barley in the production of beer. The monasteries of the area where also the first to industrialise the entire process.

Plzen

Newly named Czechia, formerly the Czech Republic, are the biggest consumers of beer on planet Earth. By a country mile. Czech people consume on average 142.1 litres per person or 250 pints a year, or one every 35 hours. To get some perspective, the Seychelles, who are second, consume just 114.6 litres per person. Yup, the Czechs love their beer, and why shouldn’t they?

The famous town of Plzen is the birthplace of a unique style which is a craft favourite of ours. In 1842 in the Czech town of Plzeň, Bavarian brewer Josef Groll produced the first batch of pilsner by combining a unique blend of malts, a specific style of yeast, Saaz hops and the remarkably soft water of Plzeň. The crisp, golden beer was a complete revelation and changed the game in Eastern Europe before spreading across the globe. It’s still a huge source of pride to the Czechs to this day!