At the end of February 2024, the Czech Association of Breweries and Maltsters submitted an application for the nomination of the cultural asset “Beer Culture in the Czech Republic” to the List of Intangible Assets of Traditional Folk Culture of the Czech Republic. The nomination was prepared by an advisory board made up of experts in beer culture. A decision on whether the Ministry of Culture will grant the application will be made in the autumn of this year. If the nomination is successful, the Czech Republic could join countries such as Belgium and Germany, which have their beer cultures on national lists of intangible cultural heritage.
The nomination is based on the basic thesis that beer culture in the Czech and Moravian environment has been shaped for centuries around local beer and is based on the meeting of socially heterogeneous groups. It is significant for the local community and remarkable in international comparison. In the Czech Republic we can historically trace a continuous pride in the quality of local beer. Despite the economic cost and complexity of the production process, traditional threshing maltings have been maintained and hops from the Czech and Moravian hop-growing regions have traditionally been used for production.