No Czech Beer but Czech Beer

The Prague Post is reporting that Czech beer has been added to the European Commision's index of Protected Designations of Origin. It joins other beers such as Münchner Bier, Mainfranken Bier, and Kölsch as beers and beer styles that cannot be so labeled unless they meet certain qualifications - most significantly that they be brewed in their respectively named locations.

What does this mean exactly? Well, in Europe it means quite a lot. Foreign brewers cannot claim that they make Czech beer giving Czech brewers a corner on the market for a type of beer that is respected world-wide. Imagine if they had been able to put such protections in place over 150 years ago when Pilsner was first brewed. A prohibition on any other brewer using the word Pilsner on their labels besides brewers in Plzen, Bohemia would have radically changed brewing and beer marketing since then.

Outside of Europe it probably doesn't mean quite so much. Presumably the ruling doesn't have any affect outside of the EU although a beer labeled Czech Beer but brewed in Trenton, New Jersey or Perth, Western Australia is going to raise suspicions anyway.

What other beers are protected? Check out this report from the European Commission. (Thanks to my fellow Aleuminati for helping me track this down.) It was published in 2000 so it's a bit out of date but it gives you a pretty good idea of what beers and other consumables are protected. As the list continually grows one wonders if it wouldn't be easier to just issue a law that says if you didn't make it there you can't say you did.