The trend for the Czech pour ‘Mlíko’ is growing in the US
Bars across the US have started adopting the traditional Czech beer pouring method, known as mlíko, and the trend is taking off. The post The trend for the Czech pour ‘Mlíko’ is growing in the US appeared first on The Drinks Business.
Bars across the US have started adopting the traditional Czech beer pouring method, known as mlíko, and the trend is taking off.
The trend, which is now gaining traction across the Atlantic, is seeing more interest growing with beer in Czech lagers and their unique pours.
According to reports from The New York Times: “You might think the bartender has lost his mind when, instead of a golden lager, you receive a glass filled with thick, creamy foam. But it’s not a mistake—I just got mlíko.
Denver-based Cohesion Brewing co-owner Eric Larkin told reporters: “People are looking for ways to stand out” and explained how he had fallen in love with the pour when honeymooning in Prague.
Larkin explained: “Czech lagers aren’t that well-known in the US yet, but there’s room for growth.”
At Cohesion Brewing, beer fans can choose from three traditional Czech pours: The hladinka, which is a standard pour with a thick, creamy head, the šnyt which is a more foam-heavy option, with two-thirds foam and one-third beer or the mlíko which is the glass filled almost entirely with beer foam and named after the Czech word for milk.
Larkin admitted: “Americans are afraid of foam [because] “we’ve been taught that foam is bad, that it’s just taking up space in the glass” but revealed that tastes were beginning to change.
In another article addressing the trend seen in Czech paper Prague Morning, the exact origins of mlíko remain a mystery, but one theory that has been suggested is that the pouring style emerged in the 19th century as a way to make beer more accessible for people who were not fans of beer's bitterness. Another theory, which the local paper cites as “a more likely story" places the origins of the pour in 20th-century Prague where bartenders experimented with their taps to offer a point of uniqueness and that the serve began "possibly as a joke".
Unlike the taps in US bars, which function as simple on and off levers, the paper noted how Czech beer taps allow precise control over foam production and because of this it has enabled bartenders to craft different styles of pours on demand, such as mlíko.
For years, Czech-style taps were nearly impossible to find in the States, but Larkin said he was determined to serve beer the traditional way and so acquired them from a Czech manufacturer.
Now that the Pilsen-based company Lukr has also begun exporting its tap systems to American bars, the trend is taking off.
Speaking about the rise in demand from US bars, Lukr’s head of international sales Jan Havránek said: “The first year, I sold about a dozen taps, mostly to beer enthusiasts.” But admitted that times have changed and the trend is now fully embedded.
Havránek added: “Today, the company ships between 1,000 and 2,000 units per year to the US.”
The trend, which is now gaining traction across the Atlantic, is seeing more interest growing with beer in Czech lagers and their unique pours.
According to reports from The New York Times: “You might think the bartender has lost his mind when, instead of a golden lager, you receive a glass filled with thick, creamy foam. But it’s not a mistake—I just got mlíko.
Denver-based Cohesion Brewing co-owner Eric Larkin told reporters: “People are looking for ways to stand out” and explained how he had fallen in love with the pour when honeymooning in Prague.
Larkin explained: “Czech lagers aren’t that well-known in the US yet, but there’s room for growth.”
At Cohesion Brewing, beer fans can choose from three traditional Czech pours: The hladinka, which is a standard pour with a thick, creamy head, the šnyt which is a more foam-heavy option, with two-thirds foam and one-third beer or the mlíko which is the glass filled almost entirely with beer foam and named after the Czech word for milk.
Larkin admitted: “Americans are afraid of foam [because] “we’ve been taught that foam is bad, that it’s just taking up space in the glass” but revealed that tastes were beginning to change.
In another article addressing the trend seen in Czech paper Prague Morning, the exact origins of mlíko remain a mystery, but one theory that has been suggested is that the pouring style emerged in the 19th century as a way to make beer more accessible for people who were not fans of beer's bitterness. Another theory, which the local paper cites as “a more likely story" places the origins of the pour in 20th-century Prague where bartenders experimented with their taps to offer a point of uniqueness and that the serve began "possibly as a joke".
Unlike the taps in US bars, which function as simple on and off levers, the paper noted how Czech beer taps allow precise control over foam production and because of this it has enabled bartenders to craft different styles of pours on demand, such as mlíko.
For years, Czech-style taps were nearly impossible to find in the States, but Larkin said he was determined to serve beer the traditional way and so acquired them from a Czech manufacturer.
Now that the Pilsen-based company Lukr has also begun exporting its tap systems to American bars, the trend is taking off.
Speaking about the rise in demand from US bars, Lukr’s head of international sales Jan Havránek said: “The first year, I sold about a dozen taps, mostly to beer enthusiasts.” But admitted that times have changed and the trend is now fully embedded.
Havránek added: “Today, the company ships between 1,000 and 2,000 units per year to the US.” 
