The 50-year hiatus is coming to an end. Ambiente with UMPRUM and Bomma glassworks are preparing the return of Czech pints to restaurants
Get the perfect pour!
The whole project started on the initiative of the heads of the D3 Product Design Studio at UMPRUM, professors Michal Froňek and Jan Němeček from the Olgoj Chorchoj studio. They have long been collaborating with Bomma glassworks, which has beer glass pressing technology. Ironically, this was not produced in the Czech Republic for several decades. That is why the idea of commissioning students of UMPRUM was born - a term paper in which they would follow up to traditional Czech pint glasses. During the creation, together with the director of the glassworks Jiří Trtík and its co-owner Martin Wichterl, they examined the production limits of the given technology.
This initiative was then introduced to Tomáš Karpíšek, the founder of Ambiente. He visited the exhibition, where he saw the students' designs. He was so impressed by the tablecloths that he decided he wanted to see similar ones in Lokál and other restaurants.
The whole selection process took about a year and a half. Twenty prototypes were gradually whittled down to three, until finally there were two final models - and these are now undergoing a stress test at Lokál and other Ambiente businesses.
The decision on which two designs will appear in the restaurants was made at the meetings of representatives of the PIVO Institute with the bartenders and general managers of Lokál, with Miroslav Bouchal and Tomáš Karpíšek. The result is the pints behind which specific creators.
The Lokál pint was designed by Tereza Bláhová, a fourth-year student at the Product Design Studio at UMPRUM, with traditional reliefs but she has transformed them into a modern "undulating radiant". It acts as a an optical illusion and at the same time refers to the historical decoration of glass. Its design is exclusively for Locals.
For Ambiente businesses, Jáchym Kuza, a second-year student at the Product Design Studio created a design based on the classic shapes of Czech beer glass and combined them in an original way into a "face" motif. He thinks it looks like a sincere "friend on a pint glass".
The two students underwent a thorough research of Czech beer culture while thinking on the practical aspects: the pint glass must be easy to wash, comfortable to hold and, of course, able to withstand daily use.
How is beer glass made?
After selecting two pints that will soon be on parade in restaurants, it was the turn of the crucial production phase - prototypes. From the virtual 3D form the project had to be brought into reality - and that's why representatives of Ambiente, the PIVO Institute, the bartenders and colleagues from marketing went to the Bomma glassworks in Světlá nad Sázavou.
There they watched live for the first time, how a pint is born from the morning assembly of the three-part mould to the first attempts to fill it with different amounts of glass. Finding the right ratio was not easy. Alongside the promisingly shaped glasses, so-called rejects were also created - a natural part of any development. Each piece, failed and successful, was a step closer to the pint that deserves a place on the pub table.
The pressing process was explained by Bomma's sales manager Michal Pros: "First, the molten glass, which is over 1,000 degrees Celsius, is poured into a mould heated to about 400 degrees. The mould then goes under the punch and in an instant, it pushes the glass into all its walls to form the desired shape of the pint. The mould is then opened and a special nozzle quickly cools the glass to hold its shape," says Pros, adding that the next step is polishing.
"With handmade glass, the glassmaker would spin the glass on a whistle and smooth the surface by moving it around in the mould. Here the process is static, so the pint must be gradually polished with a flame.," he explains. The pint travels through a series of burners that are aimed at different points to make the surface perfectly smooth. Only then is it put into the cooling oven, where the glass is slowly cool for five to six hours. "If this step were to be missed, tension could build up in the pint and the glass could spontaneously crack later on," explains Pros of the importance of slow cooling.
From Bomma, the "beer team" brought back 150 samples of each prototype, which are now to be thoroughly tested. The first reactions were very positive, although the beer was "tapped" only from the bottle (there was no tap!), the representatives from Ambiente praised the appearance of both pints.
They fit perfectly in the hand and can handle boisterous toasts
And what was next? At the beginning of August, the people from the PIVO Institute, Ambiente and Lokál tested them out at UM. The aim was to test whether two different prototypes - one for Lokál and the other for Ambiente - could handle the daily workload. And they stood up well.
Pints without a problem withstood hard toasts and pyramid glasses and passed the stress test of washing. So it's confirmed that these pints are built to last! Overall they fit well in the hand, although each prototype has its own specifics. The Ambiente pint has a slightly larger handle, while the Lokál one is heavier. But neither of these details bothered anyone. The foam on the beer it sticks beautifully and doesn't tear, which is pleasing to guests and staff alike.
In terms of design, the pints have a nicely tapered bottom and a stable base, which makes it easy to handle. With the Ambiente pint, colleagues have noted the tiny bubbles in the ear. They didn't see them as a fault, but rather as an interesting detail. However, the neck of the Ambiente will need to be adjusted as it is narrower and has too sharp an edge.
The conclusion is positive: the pint glasses are easy to hold, easy to tap, can withstand heavy loads, and look great. Now they're in for another round of testing, this time without a sharp edge, directly on the premises.
"That's where the most competent people will test them: the bartenders and the regulars. We are interested in everything - how they hold up to people, whether they sit in the tap, how the beer is poured into them... just complete feedback," summarises Lucie Janečková from the PIVO Institute.
If the tests are successful and the feedback is positive, the final moulds will be produced in September. And then the big production will start!
Good beer and honest cooking
We serve beer that's fresh, right to the last sip, and real home cooking. Lokál is a place where good beer and honest food matter.
