In the first part of the burčák guide, we discussed what this season has been like so far, when to expect burčák and how to avoid wrong purchase. This time we will look at the price of burčák, its composition, the amount of alcohol in burčák, itshealth effects and storage tips to avoid the proverbial bowel burčák explosions. There is already a third part of this series in issued, in which we share instructions how to make your own burčák from grapes at home, or „burčak“ made of apples.

Beware of the name. Not all burčák is the same. Genuine Czech burčák should bear the title burčák. You can find fermented must on the market – these are grapes that do not originate from the Czech Republic o rit could even contain other fruits.

Sellers try different tricks to fool customers. For example, a grunt. At first glance, you may not notice any other inscription, but there will certainly not be burčak contained in the bottle. Therefore, we highly recommend reading the tag or label.

Burčák should have a milky cream to pale yellow color. A brown color can be a sign of old burčak or the presence of other fruit. It should smell beautifully of grapes and yeast. The smell of apples or other fruits is not desirable. Fine cloudiness does not have to be a defect.

The price range on the market is quite wide – from 60 CZK/liter to about 150 CZK/liter. At first glance, it may seem that burčák is the cheapest thing a winemaker can offer. However, the opposite is true. The raw material is the same as for wine. The more burčák a winemaker puts on the market, the less wine he produces. So what’s the difference? What happens to the burčak in the intermediate time – before it reaches you from the winery – has a fundamental impact on its quality and price.

You probably know already how difficult it is to transport a bottle of burčak over a long distance. Imagine that you will have 500 such bottles in your car and on a sunny day you drive with this „living“ material from Moravia to Prague on the Czech highway. You probably won’t transport much…

In contrast, final wine doesn’t behave like hand grenades or bitcoins – once it’s bottled, accidents like a bottle exploding happen very rarely, mostly because the wine hadn’t been treated well and has fermented in the bottle. And its value remains more or less stable, with wines suitable for archiving even increasing over time. On the other hand, if the burčák does not have the right conditions, it is easy to dispose of valuable cargo during a single trip to Prague.

Burčák keeps fermenting constantly, whether you leave it outside or in the refrigerator. Always remember to loosen the cap. A tightly closed lid will put so much pressure in the bottle within a few hours that the container will probably explode, leaving you with only crying eyes and hours of cleanup ahead of you. Always leaving a lid or a small hole in it is a must for safe storage of burčák.

By storing burčák in the fridge, we slow down the fermentation process and it stays sweet and healthy for considerably longer time. It should last four days in the fridge if the condition of air access remain stable. If you like a harder burčák, you can let it ferment at room temperature as long as you like it, maybe even up two/three days. But keep an eye on it and taste it before serving – you may never know how „alive“ your burčák is, fermentation can happen faster in a warmer room.

You will not get the cheapest burčak on the market from us, but you will face the best for sure. Why is that? We know the winemaker personally and vouch for his quality. Freshness is the essential element for us.

Burčák is bottled at night in air-conditioned halls right in the winery. Labels are affixed so that you can be sure about the content you are drinking and where the burčák comes from. The car leaves at 4 o’clock in the morning, so that the transport takes place in the cold as much as possible and your bottle of burčák is here in the morning. And this process is repeated three to four times a week.

We store burčák solely in refrigerators, so it reaches you in the best shape.

Many customers come to us saying that they bought burčák elsewhere and had to throw out the entire bottle. That won’t happen to you with us. Thus, you will treat yourself and save a few bucks in the end. :)

It depends on how fresh burčák you drink. Yeast gradually consume sugar and convert it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In general, it can be said that the sweeter the burčák is, the smaller the percentage of alcohol.

If burčák is still before its peak, it may only have 1% of alcohol. But with a mature burčák, the amount of alcohol can reach around 7%. You will most often come across burčák in the range of around 4-6% of alcohol.

Fresh burčák contains natural sugars, which are great source of energy.

Folks say that you should drink as much burčák as you have blood in your body. We are unsure where the truth lies, but in small doses burčák is clearly beneficial for health.

Here are the facts — a milliliter of burčák contains up to 2 million yeasts and probiotics, many minerals and acids, which have beneficial effects especially on the skin, hair, nails and digestion, but i tis also salutary for the nervous system.

All of that thanks to the yeast that it is rich in group B vitamins. In burčák we also find zinc, magnesium, iron and manganese, which have a positive effect on the activity of your heart and supports proper functioning of the nervous system. Finally, it contains a solid dose of vitamin C and folic acid.

Not to mention the favorable and (reputedly) hasty effect on metabolic processes. Diabetics should drink burčák with caution, because fresh burčák contains a high proportion of natural sugars – fructose.