Whether it was the snow-white “milk tubes” of Philadelphia’s Human Robot or the oft-Instagrammed, Art Deco glasses of Slow Pour Pils from Denver’s Bierstadt Lagerhaus, American craft beer drinkers started paying a lot more attention to foam in the last few years. Between 2022 and 2023, it seemed everyone had joined in on the conversation about the proliferation of Lukr faucets, side-pull taps developed by a Czech company in 1991 to enhance the aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel of Czech lagers with frothy pours.

Inspired by brewers such as Chris Lohring, founder of Notch Brewing in Salem, Mass., more Czech-style lagers began appearing on tap lists and attracting American beer fans. Under that style umbrella sit Czech Pilsners and Czech pale, amber, and dark lagers, differentiated by their malt and characterized by an overall roundness (originally a result of the Czech Republic’s water when the styles were invented) as well as herbal, earthy, and floral notes from Czech Saaz hops. Lukr taps facilitate the three traditional Czech pours that highlight these lagers: the Hladinka, with three fingers of foam; the Šnyt, with three parts foam, two parts beer, one part space at the top of the glass; and the Mlíko, mostly foam with a touch of beer at the bottom.

The faucets became a way for American breweries to fully honor the Czech tradition and/or a valuable marketing opportunity, depending on what taproom you’re in. That’s the challenge—not everyone realized the hardware is just the first step. Without a deep understanding of the Czech-pour process, you’ve just got some funny, sideways handles behind the bar.

Lukr established The Perfect Pour Academy in 2022. While they also train Czech tapsters and even high school students interested in beverage and hospitality careers, Lukr global sales manager Jan Havranek explains that as they noticed American breweries delving into Czech lagers and their taps, the company recognized some education was necessary.

“Buying a Lukr tap and putting it on Facebook is not enough,” Havranek insists. “You learn to brew the beer well, so you need to learn how to pour the beer well, how to serve it well, and actually take care of it after it’s brewed.” A growing number of brewery owners and staff have now been getting official certification from this program to mark their understanding of the Czech “perfect pour.” They see this extra dedication as worth the lift—not only is it a tradition that spotlights a beer’s aroma, but Lukr pours are also a valuable point of engagement in a time when it can be tough to motivate people to go out and drink on-premise.

A Thirst for Knowledge

Jake Atkinson first encountered Lukr taps at Bierstadt, where they’re used for the German Slow Pour Pils. When opening Philadelphia’s Human Robot, he knew he wanted to be able to offer these kinds of pours and connected with two of the American beer scene’s most Czech lager-dedicated brewers, Mike Fava and Brienne Allan of Sacred Profane, who helped him obtain Lukr taps before they were widely available in the United States. Human Robot installed three faucets and began educating themselves with videos from Pilsner Urquell. When Havranek reached out to see if the team was interested in receiving training in their taproom during Perfect Pour’s first American tour in October 2024, they jumped at the chance to have their four managers and two most tenured bartenders schooled by Lukr’s head tapster and Pilsner Urquell Master Bartender Ondřej Rozsypal.

Wild East Brewing opened in Brooklyn in 2020, and while Lukr taps weren’t an essential part of the business plan right away, styles like Czech lagers were. Wild East has New York’s first custom-built decoction system, says cofounder Lindsay Steen. Decoction mashing, a staple in German and Czech brewing, involves removing a portion of the mash, boiling it, and returning it to the rest of the mash. Among other benefits, this triggers the Maillard reaction, where sugar and amino acids react and yield flavors that provide depth. This kind of layered complexity shines especially bright poured on Lukrs, those caps of foam bringing all of the aromas front and center. Wild East installed the Czech faucets to serve their beer as traditionally as it’s brewed and was the first U.S. brewery to be asked to pour at the Prague Beer Fest in 2022. Steen had read about classes available at Lukr in nearby Pilsen and decided to add the stop to their Czech Republic journey.

Wild East invited Alternate Ending Beer Co. to pour with them in Prague. The brewery also opened in 2020, in Aberdeen, N.J.. Head brewer Brendan Arnold says that, like Human Robot, the plan to have Lukr taps was in place before they launched, inspired by Bierstadt. Alternate Ending is also a decoction brewery; Arnold says considering they already make extra effort on every step of production, it made sense to follow suit on serving. They installed Lukr taps and began doing their own research, but Wild East’s offer led to them undergoing Perfect Pour training in Pilsen, too.

Wild East and Alternate Ending also benefited from Lukr’s Perfect Pour tour of the Northeast, during which Havranek and Rozsypal visited taprooms to train staff on-site. Another one of their stops was Wishful Thinking Brewing Co. in Bethlehem, Pa. Brendan and Jackie Breslin opened the brewery in April 2024, pouring all their beers on Lukrs regardless of style, so even an IPA or stout can enjoy the same aroma-amplifying, mouthfeel-enriching benefits Czech lagers do. They visited Pilsen in 2023 to meet with Havranek and take a shorter, three-hour version of the Perfect Pour Academy training (the longest option is three days). The rest of their staff received training during the Perfect Pour tour.

While Lukr’s American visits have just begun and haven’t yet stretched beyond the Northeast, Denver’s Cohesion Brewing Company has been pursuing proper-pour education since it opened in 2021—earlier, if you count cofounder and brewer Eric Larkin’s business plan.

“From 2019 I knew we were going in this direction,” he says. “We went to Pilsen to get [the taps]…it was one of the first purchases we made, and baked into our approach. On opening day, we told our staff, ‘You’re going to waste a lot of beer today, and that’s OK, because we’d rather have it poured right.’”

The Perfect Pour Academy didn’t exist in 2019, but Havranek arranged for the Cohesion founding team to visit Lukr headquarters for some training. In April 2024, staff member Lauren Carrasquillo went on a family vacation to Prague and Larkin funded a side journey for her to Pilsen in order to become Perfect Pour-certified.

The Syllabus for Expert-Level Serving

Arnold says the first day of the three-day training in Pilsen involves visiting various pubs around Pilsen to experience the pours of different tapsters and get a feel for Czech beer culture. Next is a full day of hands-on learning, with trainees developing skills and muscle memory to complete ideal versions of the three Czech pours. During this portion, Breslin says, they learned everything from the individual function of every part of the faucet to the exact angles at which glasses should be held (approximately 45 degrees) to the exacting standards on cleaning—a multi-step routine during which Rozsypal could identify every missed spot—and glassware temperature—35 to 40 degrees, for which Czech venues often have glycol baths but American breweries like Wishful Thinking typically use freezers for.

Trainees are then put to the test at a local brewery, pouring for actual customers. “It was kind of nerve-wracking,” said Alternate Ending cofounder Scott Novick. On the academy’s third day, students are also tested with both a written exam and a demonstration.

Participants learn this mechanical minutiae while also deepening their understanding of the sensory experience and culture behind these pours. Even the owners and brewers familiar with Czech beer learned the purpose of foam on a deeper level, how much the tapster can manipulate that foam, how it’s different from the foam of a German slow pour—Czech foam is wetter, pillowy, and soft, while German foam is drier and more bitter—and what sensory experiences each of the three pours creates. Larkin compares it to the way a coffee shop can create an entire menu of drinks consisting of different espresso-to-milk ratios.

“With the Šnyt leaving about a finger empty, it really allows you to get your nose into the mug and surround yourself with the smell,” Atkinson says. “The Hladinka, going all the way to the top, is crisper with less head, but still smooth and creamy.”

Extolling the Tapster

The epiphany behind learning the detailed nuances of these pours is just how much control the tapster has over a beer. Steen says Wild East’s Patience & Fortitude Czech-style Pilsner has never tasted as good as when Ondřej Rozsypal poured it, and Breslin says when Rozsypal poured a Šnyt during Wishful Thinking’s training and one of the brewery’s cooks tried it, he was surprised it was the same beer he’d had earlier.

“We believe that if you take the right care, the beer can taste way, way better,” says Havranek. “We have a Czech saying, ‘The brewmaster brews the beer and the tapster makes it.’ We believe both roles are equally important.”

“My biggest takeaway from the training was the value and importance of service culture,” Carrasquillo says. “Ingredients, brewing technique, and serving style and culture are all weighed the same. In American or other international beer, there’s more emphasis on the ingredients and what makes the style. But in the Czech Republic, it’s all these details from chilling the glassware to the pour itself.”

“It was a surreal experience to see how their culture almost puts the tapster on the pedestal, not the brewer or owner,” Novick says. “Tapsters are the most important people in the industry.”

Commitment to the Pour—and Communicating That to Customers

The next challenge after learning the art of the perfect pour is helping consumers understand.

“People think they’re getting cheated,” Novick says. “‘Oh, I just ordered an $8 beer and they gave me three fingers of foam.’” Offering a Šnyt is far from a cheat and is instead an enhanced beer-drinking experience that hinges on educated servers. Novick also enlisted an illustrator to provide drawings of the three pours that are provided at every table, as well as stickers of the Hladinka, Šnyt, and Mlíko. Their efforts seem to be working.

“[With] the quality of presentation with these lagers, we have sold more lager,” Arnold says. “We like to call ourselves a lager brewery that makes great IPA, but we have seen an increase in lager sales on weekend nights—we’re running out of lager mugs.” Customers become intrigued by the pours and appreciate the brewery’s dedication, and often end up ordering a Šnyt or Mlíko when closing their tabs. “They’re getting this new sensory experience and it’s exciting.”

Wishful Thinking also has pour illustrations on its menus, Wild East commissioned beer cartoonist Em Sauter to illustrate the Czech pours, and Carrasquillo says they have information throughout the Cohesion taproom, from table tents to the menu. But both Steen and Carrasquillo emphasize that the best learning comes from actual conversations with guests. Increasingly, too, Steen notes, patrons are already aware of Czech lagers and Lukr taps. For breweries renowned for their lagers, these pours might be the very reason many customers walk through their doors.

Whether beer drinkers are in the know or hungry for a novel discovery, traditional Czech-style pours deliver. And when they’re enjoyed from a tapster trained by Lukr itself, these pours promise to build a lasting appreciation for imbibers.

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