From an 1869 share offer to Prague’s second-largest brewer.

Staropramen comes from Smíchov, a district on the left bank of the Vltava in Prague. English Wikipedia, citing the company’s own history pages, says shares in a joint-stock brewery in Smíchov were offered in 1869 and that the building was finished and the first beer brewed in 1871. Czech Wikipedia adds detail: permission to found the joint-stock company was granted on 4 June 1869, the founder was the local civic savings bank, the Občanská záložna na Smíchově, and the first brew took place on 1 May 1871, with sales beginning that July. The Oxford Companion to Beer, in an entry by John Holl, gives the same 1869 founding and the same May 1871 first batch.

The name came later than the brewery. Staropramen means “old spring,” a reference to a source of water, and English Wikipedia dates its registration as a brand to 1911; Czech Wikipedia gives 1911 in one place and 1913 in another, so both years appear in the sources.

Like other Czech breweries, Smíchov was nationalised after the Second World War and ran as a state enterprise under communism. After 1989 it became the core of a new company, Pražské pivovary (Prague Breweries), formed in 1992 together with the Braník and Měšťan breweries. The British brewer Bass took control of the group during the 1990s — Czech Wikipedia dates its entry to 1993, while English Wikipedia says Bass controlled the group by 1996 — and English Wikipedia says Bass added the Ostravar brewery in Ostrava in 1997.

Today the company calls itself Pivovary Staropramen, a name the Oxford Companion says replaced Pražské pivovary in 2003. English Wikipedia describes it as the second-largest brewer in the Czech Republic, and Czech Wikipedia describes the Smíchov plant as the last working industrial brewery in Prague.

Bass, Interbrew, CVC and Molson Coors.

Staropramen’s modern history is largely a story of changing owners. In 2000 Bass sold its brewing business to the Belgian brewer Interbrew: the European Commission’s merger decision of August 2000 records Interbrew’s plan to take sole control of both Bass’s brewing arm and Pražské pivovary. English Wikipedia says Interbrew merged with the Brazilian brewer AmBev in 2004 to form InBev, the company that later became Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The next change came the following year. On 15 October 2009 AB InBev agreed to sell its Central European operations, covering nine countries including the Czech Republic, to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners, and the two companies announced on 2 December 2009 that the sale was complete. The business was renamed StarBev. CVC’s release said AB InBev would keep the right to brew Staropramen in Russia and Ukraine and to distribute it in several other markets, among them the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

StarBev was sold on within three years. The Guardian reported on 3 April 2012 that Molson Coors had agreed to buy StarBev, and Molson Coors’ annual report gives 15 June 2012 as the completion date. In its release of 18 June 2012 the company renamed the business Molson Coors Central Europe and called Staropramen its flagship brand, with sales in more than 30 countries. Czech Wikipedia says the Czech company took its present name, Pivovary Staropramen s.r.o., on 1 February 2013.

The beer itself is not made only in Prague. English Wikipedia lists licensed production in Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Georgia and the United Kingdom, where it names the Molson Coors brewery at Burton-on-Trent. Where the beer is brewed has been an issue before: The Morning Advertiser reported in November 2003 that Interbrew UK, after moving British draught production from Smíchov to Samlesbury in Lancashire, would return draught brewing to the Czech Republic from early 2004 following pressure from drinkers.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all beer names from Asia and Europe: San Miguel, Efes, Sapporo, Orion, Cass, Hite and Staropramen. Beer brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from breweries that still carry the name of a town or a founder to labels that now belong to much larger drinks groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a corner shop to a stadium bar.

A beer brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single bottle than by a label, a name and the place it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its brewing or grown far beyond the place where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its beer is actually brewed and packaged.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its beer is brewed and how its labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A Prague label redrawn for each new owner.

The brand’s look has been revised several times. Czech Wikipedia records a new logo in 1999 designed to recall the brewery’s golden years between the two world wars, and another new logo, together with lighter bottles, in 2006. The same source says the brewery launched its Potrefená husa chain of franchised restaurants in 1998, with the first opening the following year, and opened a visitor centre at Smíchov in 2011.

Under Molson Coors the bottle itself changed. The Dieline reported in July 2012 that the branding and packaging consultancy Cartils had designed a new, angular bottle with vertical branding and traditional embossing, and an embossed “S” symbol on the back. In November 2016 The Morning Advertiser reported a further refresh in the United Kingdom, rolled out across packs, bottles, font badges and handles, with a new tankard carrying a logo that highlights Czech influences; Molson Coors’ UK brand director Ali Pickering said it “brings the spirit of Prague to the forefront of the brand.” In May 2023 Expats.cz reported that the actor Orlando Bloom had been named a brand ambassador.

Staropramen is not the only name the company brews. English Wikipedia lists Braník, Ostravar and Velvet among its other brands, and Czech Wikipedia says Braník has been brewed at Smíchov since 2007, while the Ostravar brewery in Ostrava remains part of the company.

For a design guide, Staropramen shows how a nineteenth-century Prague brewery can keep its district, its spring and its name constant through state ownership and four foreign owners, while its logo and bottle are redrawn around them. Compare Budvar, the state-owned brewery of České Budějovice, and Kozel, the goat-labelled beer of Velké Popovice. For this guide we use Smíchov red, bottle green and malt gold with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Staropramen’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.