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Czech breweries last year produced over 20 million hectolitres of beer, which is the biggest amount in the country’s history, according to the latest figures released by the Czech Beer and Malt Association this week. The production was fuelled mainly by increasing domestic consumption as well as increasing exports. The number of breweries has also gone up last year. Compared to 2015, production of beer and non-alcoholic beer increased last year by nearly two percent. Production of non-alcoholic beer was up by 17 percent to reach a total of 555,000

Agriculture Minister Marian Jurečka has confirmed that the state-owned brewery Budějovický Budvar will be headed by Petr Dvořák, until now global brand director at rival Pilsner Urquell. Dvořák will take up the post on May 1. He replaces the former head, Jiří Boček, who ran the brewery since the early 1990s but stepped down earlier this year for health reasons.

Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka announced that the new head of the new head of the state-owned brewery Budějovický Budvar will be Petr Dvořák, until now the global brand director at rival brewery Pilsner Urquell (Plzeňský). As of May 1 he will replace the long-time director Jiří Boček, who led Budvar since 1991 but stepped down at the start of the year because of health issues. Budvar's economic director Petr Žáček has been leading the firm since Boček stepped down. Budvar is the fourth largest brewer in the Czech Republic and exports to over 75 countries.

In central Europe the name Zelený čtvrtek or Green Thursday (known in English as Maundy Thursday) inspired a tradition of eating green food, such as salad and spinach. Many Czechs have embraced this practice and the sworn meat-eaters simply down their stake with a pint of green beer. The annual green beer festivities originated in Brno twelve years ago and have now spread to many parts of the country.

The Japanese brewery Asahi took over one of the Czech Republic’s biggest breweries, Plzeňský Prazdroj, On Friday. The brewery was bought, alongside with four other European brewers, from the multinational SABMiller. The Czech brewer, the biggest in the country, will now be part of Asahi Breweries Europe and will be answerable to the Tokyo company headquarters. The regional headquarters will be in Prague. The sale of some SABMiller assets was the price demanded by the European Commission for clearance of its purchase by AB InBev. Pilsner Urquell is the best known beer produced by the Plzeň brewery.

No bill but regular membership fees, good beer and privacy: those are aims of more and more Czechs either founding or joining new so-called beer clubs, meant to replace classic, often ailing pubs in some towns and villages. According to Czech Radio, interest in founding new such clubs has jumped significantly, at least in part as a means of dodging the country’s electronic cash register system launched last December (and about to go into its second wave) as a means of bringing in more tax revenues and clamping down on the grey economy.

The Pilsen-based association Právovarečné měšťanstvo is questioning the sale of the Czech brewery Plzeňský Prazdroj to the Japanese company Asahi Group Holdings, the news site iDnes.cz has reported.

Mid-sized Czech brewer, Bernard, has reported record production figures for 2016. The brewer produced just over 315,000 hectolitres of beer last year with around a fifth of it destined for export. The biggest export destinations are Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Russia. Exports were renewed to the United States in December.

Excessive consumption of beer is a much bigger health risk than previously thought, according to a study undertaken by researchers at Brno’s Masaryk University. According to one of the authors of the study Pavel Grassgruber, excessive consumption of beer significantly contributes to Czech health problems and the fact that Czechs now top the European ladder in pancreas and kidney cancer. Czechs are the world’s leading beer drinkers with an annual consumption of 143 liter per head. Germany, known for its famous annual Oktoberfest, is in second place, with 110 liters per head.

Japan’s biggest brewery group, Asahi Group Holdings, has won the bidding competition to acquire Plzeňský Prazdroj, the biggest Czech beer producer with an internationally recognised brand name.