A Hotel for Beer Lovers

Beer geeks will love discerning hotelier Sir Rocco Forte’s newest addition to his distinctive hotel collection. The Augustine, which opened last week in Prague, is built on land leased from the 13th-century Augustinian St. Thomas’s Monastery, where the monks brewed beer from 1352 until 1952. Several monks still live in a separate part of the monastery, adjacent to the hotel grounds. Sir Rocco, playing to the recent obsession with artisanal beer, bought the ancient beer recipe from the monks and is having them brew it again so that he can serve it on tap at the hotel's Brewery Bar (which is very fittingly located in the cellar of the former St. Thomas’s brewery). The dark, almost ebony-colored brew is made from five kinds of barley and Czech Saaz hops and has a nice roasted, caramel malt flavor. There’s already talk of trying to bottle the beer so guests can take it home as a souvenir.

© Rocco Forte Hotels
The Brewery Bar at the Augustine in Prague.