Kozel

Kozel is the Czech lager that leans all the way into its name — kozel means goat, there is a horned mascot on every label, and the brewery in Velké Popovice keeps a real goat called Olda on the premises, a title that has passed through a succession of goats.

The Ringhoffer family of industrialists set up the brewery in 1874 on their estate at Velké Popovice, a village just southeast of Prague. Unusually for a Czech brand this size, its calling card abroad is dark: Kozel's černý — black — lager, gentle and sweet-leaning, became the gateway dark beer for drinkers across Central and Eastern Europe and on into Asia.

Today Kozel belongs to Plzeňský Prazdroj — the Pilsner Urquell house — under Japan's Asahi Group, which has carried the goat far beyond its village. At home you will still find the pale version poured under proper Czech foam; abroad, order the dark and discover what a session-strength dark lager can do.

The dark pours deep mahogany with a tan head: caramel, toasted bread, and a touch of cocoa, sweet-leaning and light-bodied with barely-there bitterness — a dark beer for people convinced they don't like dark beer. The pale is simpler: bready Czech malt and a soft hop bite, made for foam-topped halves.