Stupňovitost). It is expressed as a weight percentage of sucrose and is used to indicate the percentage by weight of extract (sucrose) in a solution. So, the 12° beer has 12% of these substances dissolved in water. A 10 degree beer is about 4% alcohol by volume, a 12 degree is about 5% and 16 degree is about 6.5%. According to Czech law, categories of beer, regardless of colour or style, are: lehké – a "light" beer brewed below 8° Balling and with less than 130kJ per 100ml výčepní – a "draught" beer, though it can be bottled, brewed between 8° and 10° ležák – a "lager" beer, brewed between 11° and 12.99° speciál – a "special" beer, brewed above 13° Originally, Pilsner was a specific term for beers brewed in Plzeň (with Pilsner Urquell being registered as a trademark by the first brewery). The term has come to mean any pale, hoppy lager as a result of imitations of the original beer, especially in Germany where the style is common. Festivals There are a lot of beer festivals in the Czech Republic. One of them is Pilsner Fest, a two-day beer festival held each year by the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Pilsen with music by local bands on four stages in the town or festival Slavnosti piva v Českých Budějovicích (in České Budějovice). The Czech Beer Festival (Český pivní festival) in Prague is the biggest beer festival in Czech Republic held for 17 days every year in May. Festival visitors can taste more than 70 brands of Czech beer. Research institutions Malting Institute in Brno Research Institute of Brewing and Malting Hop Research Institute Exports Overview With over forty industrial breweries and seventy small and medium-sized family breweries in the Czech Republic, beer is one of the most important and well known exports in the Czech Republic. In 2016, approximately 3.68 million hectoliters of beer was exported within the European Union. As of 2017, the Czech Republic was number ten in the world's top beer exports, with an export amount of 273.9 million dollars in exports and 1.9 percent of the world's total beer exports. Within the European Union, the Czech Republic was ranked as the seventh largest producer. Forty percent of beer in the Czech Republic is exported to Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, England, and Russia. Additionally, Czech exports to China doubled from 2014 to 2015, and 0.65 of