A guide to the hospoda
The hospoda is the ordinary Czech pub. Most villages have one and most city districts several. It is usually a plain room with wooden tables, a counter and a regulars' table, the štamgast table, which visitors should not take without being asked.
The standard measure is the half-litre, the půllitr. Beer is named by a number, which is the degree of the wort before fermentation. A desítka is a ten-degree beer, light and often modest in alcohol, and a dvanáctka is a twelve-degree beer, fuller and stronger. The degree is not the same as the percentage of alcohol, and a twelve usually contains around five per cent.
How it is poured
A good bartender serves the beer under a thick, dense head of foam. In some pubs there are three styles of pouring. In the first, hladinka, the glass is mostly beer with a firm cap of foam. In the second, šnyt, a smaller glass holds a good deal more foam, which gives a creamier and sweeter taste. The third, mlíko, the “milk”, is a small glass filled almost entirely with foam, and is drunk quickly.
The waiter does not take payment for each beer. Instead he marks a line on the beer mat for each glass and counts the marks when you ask for the bill. Leaving the mat on the table tells him that you want another.