The Liberation Festival PIlsen will have its own special batch of beer. It will be brewed in Pilsen’s experimental brewery Elektrárna. Visitors to the Liberation Celebrations will be able to taste the unfiltered 10° special Indian Pale Lager (IPL) with the distinctive name Veteran on the Republic square from 2 to 6 May 2025, or buy the limited-edition cans with a visual of the annual Liberation Festival. A limited-edition commemorative jar will also be available for purchase.

“The entire Liberation Festival is about honoring those who liberated Pilsen 80 years ago. They brought us freedom, many of them sacrificed the most precious thing, i.e. their own lives. Thus, a special batch of beer in a symbolic linking of breweries from Pilsen and the USA is one of the many ways to repeat again and again: Thank you,” said Mayor Roman Zarzycký, who was present at the launch of the batch of beer.

“As part of the American-Czech friendship, we have teamed up with Three Taverns Brewery for the third year to create Veteran beer. The brewery, based in Atlanta, organizes a number of events in the US to celebrate the end of World War II. And we are happy that we have managed to secure a special batch for Pilsen,” said Michal Škoda from the Elektrárna brewery.

The special beer was brewed with Veteran hops of the same name, a blend of HBC 586, Ekuanot, Idaho 7, Chinook and Triumph hops from growers associated with a network of hop farms called Yakima Chief Hops. This American association releases a special hop blend each year and donates a portion of the sales to support war veterans. The recipe for the Veteran IPL was created by Lenka Straková, brewer at Proud Brewery, together with brewer Neal Engleman from the American brewery Three Taverns.