Polish Beer

Craft Beer in Poland

I wasn’t supposed to go to Krakow, and out of all our options, Poland was last on my list. I left for Poland with mild curiosity and didn't expected much. 
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Like with most things in life I have preconceptions about, Poland proved me wrong. Dead wrong. I feel completely stupid for even thinking it’s a crappy place to travel to.

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My girlfriend and I were getting a little bored with the Berlin life and were looking for a nice weekend getaway. Given she’s been everywhere and I nowhere, I drafted a list of the three places I wanted to visit. Czech Republic (aka Pilzn), Belgium (anywhere), or Poland. Poland only because it was a place she hadn’t been before. So, after a bit of discussion, we head down to the Deutsche Bahn to buy our tickets to Warsaw. About 20 min later, I realized we purchased tickets to Krakow by mistake. Following our embarrassment and a stint of laughing, freak-out from hotel cancellations, and only a day of planning, we set out for our first trip to Poland.

​We now go any chance we get.

Scene
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To put it into perspective, I am at odds with the German beer scene. It isn’t the same here as it is elsewhere. While I do appreciate and like traditional German beers (at least more than my European counterparts), there is something unique about German drinking culture. From what I can tell, they don’t let their beers get in the way of conversation. It is this tradition which seems to put craft beer in an awkward position, leaving the microbreweries here with a major uphill battle. Although my thoughts on German beer is outside the scope of this piece, suffice it to say that it's noticeably different than anything I’ve encountered before.

Poland is completely different. There is a vibrant drinking culture that takes pleasure in things besides cheap Pilsner; Polish brewers are nailing Brett-only ales, experimenting with styles (like a smoked Berliner Weiss), and promoting craft beer classics like a west coast IPA. So, for me, traveling to Poland is like standing on familiar ground.  

But like most things foreign, I am limited by language. A look into how craft beer developed in Poland would prove fascinating. Post-WWII, most breweries were nationalized. Following the collapse of the communist government, the brewing industry went through consolidations, and now 80% of the breweries are owned by only three companies.

​Yet underneath this seemingly challenging market, craft beer seems to be thriving. From what I can tell, the ‘craft beer’ movement started roughly in the early 2000s and started gaining momentum in 2012. Now, there are plenty of beer fests like the Targi Piwne or the Festiwal Dobrego Piwa, and 2016 alone saw around 65 breweries opening their doors.  
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Schöps
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​On a (fairly) recent trip to a beer festival in Poznan, I learned about a historic beer called Schöps. According to the marketing pamphlet as provided by Browar Stu Mostow (the brewery which recreated the style), Schöps was the highest consumed beer in Breslau (Wroclaw) during the sixteenth century. Apparently, beer had been made in the area since 1255, and around the 1700s, barley beers fell out of favor to wheat based beers. Now, that alone is worthy of a research project. What was import / export relationship with the rest of Europe? Were these beers influenced by what was going on abroad, or were they born from Poland? Unfortunately, the marketing pamphlet is all I have on the matter.

The taste was a bit unexpected. The beer had a nice golden color with a nice lasting head. Aroma was rather subtle, with only a hint of malt and slight sourness. The taste was just a typical wheat-cereal flavor, with not too much yeast characteristics. I would say it was an enjoyable beer, but that might be due to my bias towards historical recipes.

The Brewers Association added it to its list of beer styles (here, pg 19 - 20). Yet they don’t cite where they found the information, and I can only find Stu Mostow's work online. So I have no idea where they came up with the “Breslau Style - Dark Schöps,” which is all I will say about that.

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Good news though is that it appears there has been some work done on the brewing history of Poland, as I found these two publications:

Historia piwowarstwa w Opolu i okolicach

and

Alkoholowe dzieje Polski. Czasy Piastów i Rzeczypospolitej Szlacheckiej

Now all that’s left to do is learn Polish and I’ll be set.