B.C. breweries have fallen in love with Czech-style side-pour taps
Ask Brent Mills about his “first time” and you’ll see his eyes light up as he recalls this highly pleasurable experience, one that he has spent a considerable amount of time, effort and money to recreate again and again—especially at the new Beach House & Brewery that Four Winds opened in Tsawwassen last year.
I am referring to beer poured through a Czech-style side-pour tap, of course. What did you think I was talking about?
Mills’ “first time” occurred in 2016 when he visited the Czech Republic on a beer and cycling trip. After arriving in Plzeň and checking into a hotel, he headed out to the nearest bar.
“We ordered Pilsner Urquell and they asked, ‘Do you want unfiltered or the regular?’”
Of course, he ordered the unfiltered version. It turns out they’d picked one of the only bars in the world that serves unfiltered Pilsner Urquell lager direct from the source—the city’s famous brewery that created the Pilsner style back in 1842.
“They poured it with a side-pour and I was like, ‘Wow!’ I may have seen a picture of it before, but that was the first time I’d had a beer poured that way.” As his trip continued, Mills noticed that the side-pour taps were nearly ubiquitous in the Czech Republic. “Anywhere that cares about beer. I mean they all care about beer, so almost everywhere.”
That first encounter led Four Winds’ brewmaster down a long path of investigation and discovery that resulted in not only installing a dozen Czech side-pour taps, custom built at the Lukr factory in Plzeň, but even designing the brewhouse at the Beach House specifically to suit Czech-style brewing. Clearly, this isn’t just a pet project or an obsessive hobby.
As far as beer trends go, this is the biggest one since the arrival of the Hazy IPA. Lukr side-pour (also called side-pull) taps have been showing up in breweries all over North America over the past few years. In her 2023 article, “Less Beer, More Foam,” beer writer Ruvani da Silva states that sales of these taps have topped 5,000 in the US. As she succinctly puts it, “The Lukr has landed.”
Lukr was founded in Plzeň in 1991, just a couple of years after the Velvet Revolution, which is the name given to the peaceful movement that marked the end of the Communist era in Czechoslovakia in November, 1989. The Czech brewing industry and associated technology had not changed much over the previous 50 years, so Lukr saw an opportunity to adapt and update traditional Czech beer taps for the modern market.
Compared to a traditional beer tap with a plunger valve that is either open or closed, Lukr side-pour taps employ a ball valve, compensator and strainer. The system gives the tapster much more control over the mix of beer and “wet foam” going into the glass.
Four Winds installed its first Lukr tap during the pandemic, and Mills admits now there was a bit of a learning curve in terms of getting the pours right. However, when he returned to Plzeň in 2024 as an invited member of a beer-themed trade mission, part of the tour included a visit to the Lukr factory and a proper training session.
“I’m actually a certified tapster from the Czech Republic, which is pretty cool,” Mills enthuses.
The resulting pours, featuring dollops of cream-like foam floating atop amber lager, are gorgeous and photogenic, but according to Mills, it’s not just about appearance, it’s also about flavour.
“It definitely makes a difference. First, the foam that sits on top is a controlled foam with really tight bubbles. It’s kind of similar to the foam of a latté. It’s really silky and soft. Once you get that foam cap there you fill the beer underneath, and with that foam on top you’re not allowing as much CO2 to dissipate. And then under that silky, smooth foam is really bright, vibrant, carbonated beer that’s protected from oxygen as well. So you can sip the foam which is really lovely, you can go through the foam and get some really crisp beer, or you can mix the two and it’s another unique experience.”
As part of the Lukr tour, Mills says they visited the brass tower manufacturing area where the guide said, “Here’s a unique product we’re making for a brewery in Canada. It’s a tower with eight taps on it.” It looked familiar. Sure enough: the clipboard read “Four Winds Brewing.”
“That’s mine!” he exclaimed. This was in April. A few months later, he was installing the tower at Four Winds’ new Beach House & Brewery ahead of its opening that summer. The beer menu is split between traditional and modern beer styles, and all of the traditional beers are poured on that burnished brass Lukr tap tower.
Mills’ appreciation for traditional Czech brewing extends to the Beach House’s production area, too, where the brewhouse was designed to have decoction capability along with some open-top fermenters and horizontal lagering tanks.
“We’re pretty proud of the beers we’ve been making so far. We’ve made a few batches of Czech pale lager. It’s very good, but I think we have lots of room to improve. We’re excited to progress there.”
How to Order Czech-Style Pours
Hladinka (“standard”): Two to three fingers of foam on top of gorgeous golden lager.
Šnyt (“cut”): Two parts beer, three parts foam, and one part empty space at the top of the glass.
Mlíko (“milk”): a mug of mostly wet foam that tastes sweet and smooth. Drink it in one go!
Finding foam
Lots of B.C. breweries and tap houses serve beer through Lukr taps, including: Beere, Beva, Brassneck, Category 12, Gladstone, Land & Sea, Luppolo, Shaketown, Steel & Oak, the Magnet, and the Drake.
In February, Nigel Springthorpe (Brassneck and the Magnet) launched a new lager-focused event series called Fōm with more dates planned in the future. Check fomworldwide.com for updates.
