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04-05-2022, 17:06
Visit the Fuggled site (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/05/central-european-tap-dance.html)
Look at this glorious glass of beer...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi11aSf9hFjPlpak5KjDkPi4s3Pq_59w0q2aLaY6KF8Cq ardcK0rXYw47SHFCjhZy9kEhaa4TUlMWJ1em2Q1lWe_guAnyqr w_edCtVxWp3_hEmoVV0vPgFujx8qNjy7JEcrnpaCsIPUYQLL4t RssmQ-G18mKOtu3CI-IEtxwxUBG1kXYDtjo6F18usr/s320/20220406_160650.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi11aSf9hFjPlpak5KjDkPi4s3Pq_59w0q2aLaY6KF8Cq ardcK0rXYw47SHFCjhZy9kEhaa4TUlMWJ1em2Q1lWe_guAnyqr w_edCtVxWp3_hEmoVV0vPgFujx8qNjy7JEcrnpaCsIPUYQLL4t RssmQ-G18mKOtu3CI-IEtxwxUBG1kXYDtjo6F18usr/s1800/20220406_160650.jpg)
If you've been keeping abreast of my mini-series about Schilling Beer Company in New Hampshire, you will hopefully recall that this is their magnificent Malý 8° lager, had on tap at the brewery's tasting room in Littleton (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/04/the-full-schilling-part-1.html). What I didn't mention in that particular post was the method of dispense, and fairly obviously, this particular beer was poured using a Lukr tap, also known as a side pour tap, sometimes also known as a slow pour tap. Whatever you want to call it, this was poured from a tap that is currently all the rage amongst the lager brewing and drinking community in the craft beer world, and is often touted as being the "traditional" method in Czechia.
I still remember the first time I saw a Lukr tap in the wild back in Czechia. It was around 2009 and Mrs V and I had gone to Purkmistr, a brewery and hotel on the outskirts of Plzeň, for a long weekend (http://www.fuggled.net/2009/05/main-reason-to-visit-plzen.html). Said tap was, for whatever reason, in the room that the hotel used for serving breakfast. I don't recall if they were in use in the restaurant or bar, but I noted them because they were so different from the taps I had seen in pretty much every pub I went to at the time. Almost every pub I frequented had standard taps like those at Pivovarský klub or U Slovanské lipy...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LEGP4od7tEvUmYqWK6UVMWwUA3-HGrVTq824eotziP1uePDCRCQ2cP6kg2hudd-6N-xMIdX6-lPWoVaF4Zb3GXmrzA0XrsoLTexVoUp8oR-ZRNkbDNgSKLqpVDcfZNo0TjSljtAQxgjQf7xP0V8vpeH89PvTr Y_e9UNsiuEMbHE14LxsTOE7Sj78/w200-h160/pksepia.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LEGP4od7tEvUmYqWK6UVMWwUA3-HGrVTq824eotziP1uePDCRCQ2cP6kg2hudd-6N-xMIdX6-lPWoVaF4Zb3GXmrzA0XrsoLTexVoUp8oR-ZRNkbDNgSKLqpVDcfZNo0TjSljtAQxgjQf7xP0V8vpeH89PvTr Y_e9UNsiuEMbHE14LxsTOE7Sj78/s604/pksepia.jpg) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW9T3G8TSPF-7NE1P26MguGekaPMgfNVQ365Q2AVyHIfN9wkAVcYjhg_Sd0JxI 4QhTI4_90iOMVoH48HKd2LdnEJWWV2fcTL8Ydhaua5vYAWgSOl UJvsVOIhwpEMRq4af_PW3IscKQXbwHUDMg-hXoOWFay7SwuxWvf1ppKqyVeKN_8RtvGmCqvCL/w200-h150/P3120012.JPG (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW9T3G8TSPF-7NE1P26MguGekaPMgfNVQ365Q2AVyHIfN9wkAVcYjhg_Sd0JxI 4QhTI4_90iOMVoH48HKd2LdnEJWWV2fcTL8Ydhaua5vYAWgSOl UJvsVOIhwpEMRq4af_PW3IscKQXbwHUDMg-hXoOWFay7SwuxWvf1ppKqyVeKN_8RtvGmCqvCL/s1280/P3120012.JPG)
From what folks back in Czechia have told me, the Lukr tap really took off when the concept of the tankovna pub blew up as well, around 2008. The whole concept of it being "traditional" never really sat that well with me, purely based on personal experience, and then I came across a picture in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer on the Austrian National Library website.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmTrECaqDa6bTZYqw8KhHPwmbuJ5yLZp_czoAUmg6yM0 2DFwQJxdamHC36vFy2f216zzHeG9qNZQHYzp7FQ2zv227pSPAm AXrew3IQYA-hHXDynvi5O2lQHXaMIE2LjVEeb9WKerZ8fR4rnbDlmi02EPAg8 AG9uUuE3bChELF0AuuZjY5cYQIocScz/s320/2022-04-28_14-25-35.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmTrECaqDa6bTZYqw8KhHPwmbuJ5yLZp_czoAUmg6yM0 2DFwQJxdamHC36vFy2f216zzHeG9qNZQHYzp7FQ2zv227pSPAm AXrew3IQYA-hHXDynvi5O2lQHXaMIE2LjVEeb9WKerZ8fR4rnbDlmi02EPAg8 AG9uUuE3bChELF0AuuZjY5cYQIocScz/s745/2022-04-28_14-25-35.png)
Look at those taps in this illustration. Ok, minus the more modern look, they are most distinctly "side pour" taps. Being side pour rather than the modern standard format, they would have relied on a ball valve to control the flow of beer from the tap to the drinking vessel. Then I came across this illustration, again from Der Böhmische Bierbrauer:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSVW8Xfn8Ko9wTy4b__7ETixeTCc9PGaLCjKRfVhQ8Z oOIJxNzeCdpyi-z3kPIlHKGv3LpRy-ruhczQ-Ga100CCGgePFAn8uDk4zgYkVJGUOY_-s7lF3RLvDN_yOAK68_V1-W2LTf5-g4mWanUT3rzWkrCxC-w3qkP2zh3xQwpqQPnIfH3_ELapTN/s320/2022-04-28_14-26-12.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSVW8Xfn8Ko9wTy4b__7ETixeTCc9PGaLCjKRfVhQ8Z oOIJxNzeCdpyi-z3kPIlHKGv3LpRy-ruhczQ-Ga100CCGgePFAn8uDk4zgYkVJGUOY_-s7lF3RLvDN_yOAK68_V1-W2LTf5-g4mWanUT3rzWkrCxC-w3qkP2zh3xQwpqQPnIfH3_ELapTN/s693/2022-04-28_14-26-12.png)
A tap system that bore an uncanny similarity to the one I had seen in Purkmistr, clearly there was something here...oh I didn't mention these illustrations yet:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZSx9AoC3f9fWt7L8yqfNYqXvqBe5Zkx7pmae8J2v25 za0WItmF4p5rD8UXIoNDMk0HrOepMA3JfMYQoBtnTLE7k1KK8z tHCm7idHGH9MrXBoyuqlLxqt6xU7vi65IEpVamDvJr-OLNYiVWXlWWy5w0uAj18WWw_hz-YK_z0Li0NAp2d3ffcYgzwW/w184-h200/2022-04-28_14-28-20.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZSx9AoC3f9fWt7L8yqfNYqXvqBe5Zkx7pmae8J2v25 za0WItmF4p5rD8UXIoNDMk0HrOepMA3JfMYQoBtnTLE7k1KK8z tHCm7idHGH9MrXBoyuqlLxqt6xU7vi65IEpVamDvJr-OLNYiVWXlWWy5w0uAj18WWw_hz-YK_z0Li0NAp2d3ffcYgzwW/s606/2022-04-28_14-28-20.png) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvtEaFj8a0RP0EPDEBctSfGWPN2_EFChEFlsoiXO0sF aLQb0yhhhDjVy159-V5bPSBfwegz5_0MxfNHVJYGlAUEWlDvoMXFTvnHpyh8akO4SKt dAVhiz518DijHH2rzyKUAR8NnIFLQj7DGHYOZ7oSLH8JuE2oMc Pf68KRaQFeIMVSQASzJAG6s15/w148-h200/2022-04-28_14-29-00.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvtEaFj8a0RP0EPDEBctSfGWPN2_EFChEFlsoiXO0sF aLQb0yhhhDjVy159-V5bPSBfwegz5_0MxfNHVJYGlAUEWlDvoMXFTvnHpyh8akO4SKt dAVhiz518DijHH2rzyKUAR8NnIFLQj7DGHYOZ7oSLH8JuE2oMc Pf68KRaQFeIMVSQASzJAG6s15/s689/2022-04-28_14-29-00.png) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4I2jg-ij1L_vaEcReWUybU9QGhwFcCyiG5TgMeMsS3wVuXcvQWA1hTF-GFKr198YyszLWDAJuo_JMpEAy-QZyTSRM1L3clPJkjxwMeGCvy9UD0k3r8oxe4TdBQWJj7NJ8bt3 cVQiBwBoTRvmcWefUUcaPQuLB-QsqFdqKl9tjHyD1hk5cZiH9l4oP/w178-h200/2022-04-28_14-24-52.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4I2jg-ij1L_vaEcReWUybU9QGhwFcCyiG5TgMeMsS3wVuXcvQWA1hTF-GFKr198YyszLWDAJuo_JMpEAy-QZyTSRM1L3clPJkjxwMeGCvy9UD0k3r8oxe4TdBQWJj7NJ8bt3 cVQiBwBoTRvmcWefUUcaPQuLB-QsqFdqKl9tjHyD1hk5cZiH9l4oP/s531/2022-04-28_14-24-52.png)
Each of these illustrations came from an edition of Der Böhmische Bierbrauer which contained an article about the new innovation for pouring beer, attaching a CO2 tank to the barrel that would push the beer to the tap. The article had the glorious title of "The Practical Use of Carbonic Acid for Serving Beer (https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=bbr&datum=18940515&seite=11&zoom=33&query=%22zapfhahn%22&ref=anno-search)" and appeared in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer in 1894. Before the use of CO2, it was traditional for beer to be poured either via gravity or pulled through the line by a hand pump.
Intrigued, I dug further, finding images of such historic side pour taps in use in Germany in the 1930s - sorry folks I am not paying $20 a piece for a stock images of beer being poured in Mannheim at a radish festival (https://www.alamy.com/die-eichbaum-brauerei-aus-mannheim-hat-einen-ausschank-auf-dem-rettichfest-in-schifferstadt-deutschland-1930er-jahre-eichbaum-brewery-from-mannheim-selling-their-beer-at-the-annual-radish-fair-at-schifferstadt-germany-1930s-image328525712.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=7A60B16D-07E6-48D6-BF96-BA0FDBDE27CA&p=1345103&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sort by%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26q t%3dbrauereiausschank%26qt_raw%3dbrauereiausschank %26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3 d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cuto ut%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26 vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26 size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid% 3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%2 6apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26 gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26edit orial%3d1%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoi p%3d%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi %3d2%26edrf%3d%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d) , so have a link instead. Eventually I came across the Historische Bierzapf-Säulen (https://www.historische-bierzapfsaeulen.de/) website and learnt that the idea for using CO2 to dispense beer from a tap was patented in 1877 by a high school teacher and chemist Wilhelm Carl Raydt, originally from Lingen in modern day Lower Saxony. The new method of pouring beer apparently took off in northern Germany and the industrial cities, but met resistance in traditional Bavaria, which for many decades stuck with the anstich method of tapping beer.
The Historische Bierzapf-Säulen site is a beer history nerd's wet dream. The oldest illustration on the site that shows a side pour tap in use is from the 1880s, and purports to show the Berlin pub "In der Katschemme". There is even a Pilsner Urquell pub in Hamburg in one of the pictures from 1900. The guy behind the website, who clearly has a love of historical beer taps, and the beautifully decorative towers that were once part and parcel of taprooms in central Europe is also the owner of Storchenbräu (http://www.storchenbraeu.de/) in Pfaffenhausen, about 100km/62 miles west of Munich.
From what I can ascertain, side pour taps were in use in Germany until the 1960s, and if film evidence from the former Czechoslovakia is correct, there also, being replaced by the more modern flow control taps we are used to seeing in central European pubs today. Though they did seem to still be in use in at least one Zoigl pub in around 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJYAlOZtt0o), and judging by the design of the tap, it is not a Lukr made tap.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7az-z-kr_0xiOqDluCZW0yCGq8yMDj5349wvF3BUndPSBsvhZ7IhiFmU vp1vlkqqq_mLhcljnpOCbGQPxlp_VajiDTPuQuk9ccD4-_AzUh1MKLg3UmCYPaVRX4qYLVjt2qBNr9sBzJs7xo1RlNq6rES QjN_AqJf8PVv7-qAwP4eCTgRJ2whSpt9Xl/s320/2022-04-28_14-34-37.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7az-z-kr_0xiOqDluCZW0yCGq8yMDj5349wvF3BUndPSBsvhZ7IhiFmU vp1vlkqqq_mLhcljnpOCbGQPxlp_VajiDTPuQuk9ccD4-_AzUh1MKLg3UmCYPaVRX4qYLVjt2qBNr9sBzJs7xo1RlNq6rES QjN_AqJf8PVv7-qAwP4eCTgRJ2whSpt9Xl/s807/2022-04-28_14-34-37.png)
Central Europe, broadly modern day Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary, is full of stories like this, where there are parallel foods, drinks, and ways of doing things that each group of people claim as "traditional". Of course, until the First World War, most of the region lay within either the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so such commonality is to be expected. To give a small example, recently Mrs V and I went to dinner with some friends. The husband is Serbian, the wife is German - weird fun fact, they met in Lavka in Prague, and lived there for a period that overlapped with Mrs V and I, though we only met them here in Virginia. Dinner that night was a traditional Serbian meal called "podvarak", basically pork shoulder slow cooked in the oven on a bed of sauerkraut. The Czech national dish is "vepřo-knedlo-zelo", slow roasted pork shoulder, dumplings, and cabbage. In Germany there is "sauerkraut und Schwein", erm....slow cooked pork with sauerkraut, often served with potato dumplings. Where modern borders create breaks and barriers, reality is a continuity of shared history and experience.
To come back then to the side pour tap, what we are seeing is a revival of a central European way of doing things that was lost in the rush to modernity that was the 1960s. The uniqueness of the Lukr tap is in an innovation within the tap itself, which I can find no evidence for in the old texts, a filter screen that in layman's terms, turns the tap into a shower head, much like the sparkler does on a beer engine, thus creating the voluminous wet foam that the tap is rightly renowned for.
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/05/central-european-tap-dance.html)
Look at this glorious glass of beer...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi11aSf9hFjPlpak5KjDkPi4s3Pq_59w0q2aLaY6KF8Cq ardcK0rXYw47SHFCjhZy9kEhaa4TUlMWJ1em2Q1lWe_guAnyqr w_edCtVxWp3_hEmoVV0vPgFujx8qNjy7JEcrnpaCsIPUYQLL4t RssmQ-G18mKOtu3CI-IEtxwxUBG1kXYDtjo6F18usr/s320/20220406_160650.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi11aSf9hFjPlpak5KjDkPi4s3Pq_59w0q2aLaY6KF8Cq ardcK0rXYw47SHFCjhZy9kEhaa4TUlMWJ1em2Q1lWe_guAnyqr w_edCtVxWp3_hEmoVV0vPgFujx8qNjy7JEcrnpaCsIPUYQLL4t RssmQ-G18mKOtu3CI-IEtxwxUBG1kXYDtjo6F18usr/s1800/20220406_160650.jpg)
If you've been keeping abreast of my mini-series about Schilling Beer Company in New Hampshire, you will hopefully recall that this is their magnificent Malý 8° lager, had on tap at the brewery's tasting room in Littleton (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/04/the-full-schilling-part-1.html). What I didn't mention in that particular post was the method of dispense, and fairly obviously, this particular beer was poured using a Lukr tap, also known as a side pour tap, sometimes also known as a slow pour tap. Whatever you want to call it, this was poured from a tap that is currently all the rage amongst the lager brewing and drinking community in the craft beer world, and is often touted as being the "traditional" method in Czechia.
I still remember the first time I saw a Lukr tap in the wild back in Czechia. It was around 2009 and Mrs V and I had gone to Purkmistr, a brewery and hotel on the outskirts of Plzeň, for a long weekend (http://www.fuggled.net/2009/05/main-reason-to-visit-plzen.html). Said tap was, for whatever reason, in the room that the hotel used for serving breakfast. I don't recall if they were in use in the restaurant or bar, but I noted them because they were so different from the taps I had seen in pretty much every pub I went to at the time. Almost every pub I frequented had standard taps like those at Pivovarský klub or U Slovanské lipy...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LEGP4od7tEvUmYqWK6UVMWwUA3-HGrVTq824eotziP1uePDCRCQ2cP6kg2hudd-6N-xMIdX6-lPWoVaF4Zb3GXmrzA0XrsoLTexVoUp8oR-ZRNkbDNgSKLqpVDcfZNo0TjSljtAQxgjQf7xP0V8vpeH89PvTr Y_e9UNsiuEMbHE14LxsTOE7Sj78/w200-h160/pksepia.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LEGP4od7tEvUmYqWK6UVMWwUA3-HGrVTq824eotziP1uePDCRCQ2cP6kg2hudd-6N-xMIdX6-lPWoVaF4Zb3GXmrzA0XrsoLTexVoUp8oR-ZRNkbDNgSKLqpVDcfZNo0TjSljtAQxgjQf7xP0V8vpeH89PvTr Y_e9UNsiuEMbHE14LxsTOE7Sj78/s604/pksepia.jpg) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW9T3G8TSPF-7NE1P26MguGekaPMgfNVQ365Q2AVyHIfN9wkAVcYjhg_Sd0JxI 4QhTI4_90iOMVoH48HKd2LdnEJWWV2fcTL8Ydhaua5vYAWgSOl UJvsVOIhwpEMRq4af_PW3IscKQXbwHUDMg-hXoOWFay7SwuxWvf1ppKqyVeKN_8RtvGmCqvCL/w200-h150/P3120012.JPG (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW9T3G8TSPF-7NE1P26MguGekaPMgfNVQ365Q2AVyHIfN9wkAVcYjhg_Sd0JxI 4QhTI4_90iOMVoH48HKd2LdnEJWWV2fcTL8Ydhaua5vYAWgSOl UJvsVOIhwpEMRq4af_PW3IscKQXbwHUDMg-hXoOWFay7SwuxWvf1ppKqyVeKN_8RtvGmCqvCL/s1280/P3120012.JPG)
From what folks back in Czechia have told me, the Lukr tap really took off when the concept of the tankovna pub blew up as well, around 2008. The whole concept of it being "traditional" never really sat that well with me, purely based on personal experience, and then I came across a picture in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer on the Austrian National Library website.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmTrECaqDa6bTZYqw8KhHPwmbuJ5yLZp_czoAUmg6yM0 2DFwQJxdamHC36vFy2f216zzHeG9qNZQHYzp7FQ2zv227pSPAm AXrew3IQYA-hHXDynvi5O2lQHXaMIE2LjVEeb9WKerZ8fR4rnbDlmi02EPAg8 AG9uUuE3bChELF0AuuZjY5cYQIocScz/s320/2022-04-28_14-25-35.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmTrECaqDa6bTZYqw8KhHPwmbuJ5yLZp_czoAUmg6yM0 2DFwQJxdamHC36vFy2f216zzHeG9qNZQHYzp7FQ2zv227pSPAm AXrew3IQYA-hHXDynvi5O2lQHXaMIE2LjVEeb9WKerZ8fR4rnbDlmi02EPAg8 AG9uUuE3bChELF0AuuZjY5cYQIocScz/s745/2022-04-28_14-25-35.png)
Look at those taps in this illustration. Ok, minus the more modern look, they are most distinctly "side pour" taps. Being side pour rather than the modern standard format, they would have relied on a ball valve to control the flow of beer from the tap to the drinking vessel. Then I came across this illustration, again from Der Böhmische Bierbrauer:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSVW8Xfn8Ko9wTy4b__7ETixeTCc9PGaLCjKRfVhQ8Z oOIJxNzeCdpyi-z3kPIlHKGv3LpRy-ruhczQ-Ga100CCGgePFAn8uDk4zgYkVJGUOY_-s7lF3RLvDN_yOAK68_V1-W2LTf5-g4mWanUT3rzWkrCxC-w3qkP2zh3xQwpqQPnIfH3_ELapTN/s320/2022-04-28_14-26-12.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSVW8Xfn8Ko9wTy4b__7ETixeTCc9PGaLCjKRfVhQ8Z oOIJxNzeCdpyi-z3kPIlHKGv3LpRy-ruhczQ-Ga100CCGgePFAn8uDk4zgYkVJGUOY_-s7lF3RLvDN_yOAK68_V1-W2LTf5-g4mWanUT3rzWkrCxC-w3qkP2zh3xQwpqQPnIfH3_ELapTN/s693/2022-04-28_14-26-12.png)
A tap system that bore an uncanny similarity to the one I had seen in Purkmistr, clearly there was something here...oh I didn't mention these illustrations yet:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZSx9AoC3f9fWt7L8yqfNYqXvqBe5Zkx7pmae8J2v25 za0WItmF4p5rD8UXIoNDMk0HrOepMA3JfMYQoBtnTLE7k1KK8z tHCm7idHGH9MrXBoyuqlLxqt6xU7vi65IEpVamDvJr-OLNYiVWXlWWy5w0uAj18WWw_hz-YK_z0Li0NAp2d3ffcYgzwW/w184-h200/2022-04-28_14-28-20.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZSx9AoC3f9fWt7L8yqfNYqXvqBe5Zkx7pmae8J2v25 za0WItmF4p5rD8UXIoNDMk0HrOepMA3JfMYQoBtnTLE7k1KK8z tHCm7idHGH9MrXBoyuqlLxqt6xU7vi65IEpVamDvJr-OLNYiVWXlWWy5w0uAj18WWw_hz-YK_z0Li0NAp2d3ffcYgzwW/s606/2022-04-28_14-28-20.png) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvtEaFj8a0RP0EPDEBctSfGWPN2_EFChEFlsoiXO0sF aLQb0yhhhDjVy159-V5bPSBfwegz5_0MxfNHVJYGlAUEWlDvoMXFTvnHpyh8akO4SKt dAVhiz518DijHH2rzyKUAR8NnIFLQj7DGHYOZ7oSLH8JuE2oMc Pf68KRaQFeIMVSQASzJAG6s15/w148-h200/2022-04-28_14-29-00.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvtEaFj8a0RP0EPDEBctSfGWPN2_EFChEFlsoiXO0sF aLQb0yhhhDjVy159-V5bPSBfwegz5_0MxfNHVJYGlAUEWlDvoMXFTvnHpyh8akO4SKt dAVhiz518DijHH2rzyKUAR8NnIFLQj7DGHYOZ7oSLH8JuE2oMc Pf68KRaQFeIMVSQASzJAG6s15/s689/2022-04-28_14-29-00.png) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4I2jg-ij1L_vaEcReWUybU9QGhwFcCyiG5TgMeMsS3wVuXcvQWA1hTF-GFKr198YyszLWDAJuo_JMpEAy-QZyTSRM1L3clPJkjxwMeGCvy9UD0k3r8oxe4TdBQWJj7NJ8bt3 cVQiBwBoTRvmcWefUUcaPQuLB-QsqFdqKl9tjHyD1hk5cZiH9l4oP/w178-h200/2022-04-28_14-24-52.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4I2jg-ij1L_vaEcReWUybU9QGhwFcCyiG5TgMeMsS3wVuXcvQWA1hTF-GFKr198YyszLWDAJuo_JMpEAy-QZyTSRM1L3clPJkjxwMeGCvy9UD0k3r8oxe4TdBQWJj7NJ8bt3 cVQiBwBoTRvmcWefUUcaPQuLB-QsqFdqKl9tjHyD1hk5cZiH9l4oP/s531/2022-04-28_14-24-52.png)
Each of these illustrations came from an edition of Der Böhmische Bierbrauer which contained an article about the new innovation for pouring beer, attaching a CO2 tank to the barrel that would push the beer to the tap. The article had the glorious title of "The Practical Use of Carbonic Acid for Serving Beer (https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=bbr&datum=18940515&seite=11&zoom=33&query=%22zapfhahn%22&ref=anno-search)" and appeared in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer in 1894. Before the use of CO2, it was traditional for beer to be poured either via gravity or pulled through the line by a hand pump.
Intrigued, I dug further, finding images of such historic side pour taps in use in Germany in the 1930s - sorry folks I am not paying $20 a piece for a stock images of beer being poured in Mannheim at a radish festival (https://www.alamy.com/die-eichbaum-brauerei-aus-mannheim-hat-einen-ausschank-auf-dem-rettichfest-in-schifferstadt-deutschland-1930er-jahre-eichbaum-brewery-from-mannheim-selling-their-beer-at-the-annual-radish-fair-at-schifferstadt-germany-1930s-image328525712.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=7A60B16D-07E6-48D6-BF96-BA0FDBDE27CA&p=1345103&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sort by%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26q t%3dbrauereiausschank%26qt_raw%3dbrauereiausschank %26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3 d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cuto ut%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26 vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26 size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid% 3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%2 6apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26 gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26edit orial%3d1%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoi p%3d%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi %3d2%26edrf%3d%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d) , so have a link instead. Eventually I came across the Historische Bierzapf-Säulen (https://www.historische-bierzapfsaeulen.de/) website and learnt that the idea for using CO2 to dispense beer from a tap was patented in 1877 by a high school teacher and chemist Wilhelm Carl Raydt, originally from Lingen in modern day Lower Saxony. The new method of pouring beer apparently took off in northern Germany and the industrial cities, but met resistance in traditional Bavaria, which for many decades stuck with the anstich method of tapping beer.
The Historische Bierzapf-Säulen site is a beer history nerd's wet dream. The oldest illustration on the site that shows a side pour tap in use is from the 1880s, and purports to show the Berlin pub "In der Katschemme". There is even a Pilsner Urquell pub in Hamburg in one of the pictures from 1900. The guy behind the website, who clearly has a love of historical beer taps, and the beautifully decorative towers that were once part and parcel of taprooms in central Europe is also the owner of Storchenbräu (http://www.storchenbraeu.de/) in Pfaffenhausen, about 100km/62 miles west of Munich.
From what I can ascertain, side pour taps were in use in Germany until the 1960s, and if film evidence from the former Czechoslovakia is correct, there also, being replaced by the more modern flow control taps we are used to seeing in central European pubs today. Though they did seem to still be in use in at least one Zoigl pub in around 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJYAlOZtt0o), and judging by the design of the tap, it is not a Lukr made tap.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7az-z-kr_0xiOqDluCZW0yCGq8yMDj5349wvF3BUndPSBsvhZ7IhiFmU vp1vlkqqq_mLhcljnpOCbGQPxlp_VajiDTPuQuk9ccD4-_AzUh1MKLg3UmCYPaVRX4qYLVjt2qBNr9sBzJs7xo1RlNq6rES QjN_AqJf8PVv7-qAwP4eCTgRJ2whSpt9Xl/s320/2022-04-28_14-34-37.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7az-z-kr_0xiOqDluCZW0yCGq8yMDj5349wvF3BUndPSBsvhZ7IhiFmU vp1vlkqqq_mLhcljnpOCbGQPxlp_VajiDTPuQuk9ccD4-_AzUh1MKLg3UmCYPaVRX4qYLVjt2qBNr9sBzJs7xo1RlNq6rES QjN_AqJf8PVv7-qAwP4eCTgRJ2whSpt9Xl/s807/2022-04-28_14-34-37.png)
Central Europe, broadly modern day Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary, is full of stories like this, where there are parallel foods, drinks, and ways of doing things that each group of people claim as "traditional". Of course, until the First World War, most of the region lay within either the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so such commonality is to be expected. To give a small example, recently Mrs V and I went to dinner with some friends. The husband is Serbian, the wife is German - weird fun fact, they met in Lavka in Prague, and lived there for a period that overlapped with Mrs V and I, though we only met them here in Virginia. Dinner that night was a traditional Serbian meal called "podvarak", basically pork shoulder slow cooked in the oven on a bed of sauerkraut. The Czech national dish is "vepřo-knedlo-zelo", slow roasted pork shoulder, dumplings, and cabbage. In Germany there is "sauerkraut und Schwein", erm....slow cooked pork with sauerkraut, often served with potato dumplings. Where modern borders create breaks and barriers, reality is a continuity of shared history and experience.
To come back then to the side pour tap, what we are seeing is a revival of a central European way of doing things that was lost in the rush to modernity that was the 1960s. The uniqueness of the Lukr tap is in an innovation within the tap itself, which I can find no evidence for in the old texts, a filter screen that in layman's terms, turns the tap into a shower head, much like the sparkler does on a beer engine, thus creating the voluminous wet foam that the tap is rightly renowned for.
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2022/05/central-european-tap-dance.html)