As our packed little lift descended down through the lift-shaft in solid rock to the underground lake some 300 metres below ground level, I looked warily through the glass floor at the foaming waters approaching me in the spotlight beneath and found myself thinking of my family back home. If anything went wrong now, they just wouldn’t be able to cope – where had I hidden the remote?
I was visiting the Budejovicky Budvar brewery outside Prague and as it turned out, not everyone in our party knew that this was merely a simulated journey and that in reality the ‘lift’ itself hadn’t moved at all. A simulated video of the journey down the shaft had been projected up through screens on the floor. Very clever. Budejovicky Budvar’s distributors in Ireland, Noreast Beers, had brought over a party of 23 publicans and off-licensees to see for themselves how this growing premium imported beer is brewed at source.
And so we found ourselves enjoying what amounted to a technologically sophisticated brewery tour, skilfully executed for the visitor in seemingly lifelike conditions by the wonders of modern technology. (more…)
