| The
Polish brewing industry |
Since the denationalisation of most of the industry, most
of the larger concerns have been gobbled up by foreign multinationals. Heineken,
South African Breweries (SABMiller)
and Carlsberg now control a majority of the market between them.
Their domination will only increase with time. These international companies
have already "rationalised" their Polish operations, closing some
smaller breweries.
 I
expect that life will become increasingly difficult for the smaller, more
old-fashioned breweries who lack the capital to invest in new equipment
or advertise their beers. In all likelihood, many will close, leaving half
a dozen large companies to take most of the market, as is the case in the
rest of Europe. The overall number of breweries may well remain around the
70 mark, however, with the arrival of pub-breweries. There are already a
couple, but this will surely increase. The only surprise was how long it
took them to start up in such obvious places as Warsaw or Cracow.
The 1990's saw a surprising number of new small to medium size breweries
start up from scratch. Some have grown to such a size (production of over
100,000 hl per year) that it is difficult to categorise them as micro breweries.
The beers which they brew are much the same as those from the established
breweries.
The current number of active breweries is 71. The breweries break down as
follows:
| Brewery |
No. |
Details |
| SABMiller |
3 |
Owns Kompania Piwowarska, which consists of Dojlidy, Lech, Tyskie. |
| Heineken |
7 |
Owns Grupa Żywiec SA which consists of: EB, Królewskie,
Kujawiak, Leżajsk, Warka, Zamkowy, Żywiec. |
| Carlsberg |
5 |
Carlsberg-Okocim SA. Owns these breweries:- Bosman, Kasztelan, Okocim,
Piast, Piast - Zakrzów |
| Browary Polskie Brok - Strzelec SA. |
4 |
A group made up of Brok, Brok - Połczyn-Zdrój, Rybnik, Strzelec. |
| Independents |
49 |
Vary greatly in size and age. I have included in this category all
new stand-alone breweries. |
| Brewpubs |
3 |
The first brewpubs started to appear in the 1990's. They haven't
taken off as they have in some countries. |
| Microbreweries |
- |
It's difficult to define this category in Poland. Usually I would
include all the breweries founded since 1989. However, as some produce
in excess of 250,000 hl, the term "micro" isn't very appropriate.
|
| Contract Brewers |
1 |
Stary Krakow is the only one so far.. |
|
| Polish
Beer Styles |
 Most
Polish breweries have have a half dozen or so products, for the greater
part pale lagers of varying strengths from 10.5 - 14% balling or 4 - 6%
alcohol. Most pale lagers are very fully attentuated, presumably with value-conscious
consumers in mind. The big sellers are around the international lager standard
of 5% alcohol and a density in the region of 11 -12° Plato.
As in the Czech republic, there is often no claim of a specific style, just
a reference to the original gravity in degrees Plato. Some beers are labelled
as Pils or Pilsener, but without much rigour or consistency. The term "Specjal"
seems to mean little more than a beer with a density of more than 12° Plato.
Even breweries in Silesia, which was long under German control, have not
retained German nomenclature such as Helles, Export or Bock.
Lower-gravity lagers (in the 9-10° Plato range) are unknown in most countries,
except for Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Polish breweries usually
make a couple. How to describe them in English is a bit of a problem, as
the terminology doesn't really exist. The German term "Schankbier"
is almost right, but doesn't usually cover beers of over 9° Plato. In my
Czech Breweries page, I've stuck to the
Czech designation "výčepní". This
is probably the most accurate term to describe the weaker Polish lagers.
They're meant to be serious beers, but are of a "session" strength.
Unsurprisingly, given the high degree of attenuation, most of the "full"
pale lagers tend to be light in body, dry and hoppy. The better ones can
be assertively bitter and stand up well in comparison to Czech beers of
a similar strength.
Many breweries have multiple brands of exactly the same strength and density.
In all likelihood, most of these are label beers. It's a bit frustrating
that there is so little variation. It's not uncommon to find six pale lagers
and nothing else in brewery's range.
Bottom-fermenting Styles
| Style |
alc. |
Plato |
description |
| Piwo jasne lekkie |
3-4% |
8-10° |
Pale lager of under 10° Plato. It means literally "Pale light beer".
Schankbier. "Výčepní" |
| Piwo jasne pelne |
4-5% |
10-14° |
Usually translated as "full light beer". It means a pale
lager of full strength, i.e. at least 10° Plato.Most Polish beers
fall into this category.
It covers beers in the Pilsner style and in the Export or Spezial
(Specjal) styles. Those at the weaker end are like a Czech "výčepní"
pale lager - a sort of session-strength Pils. |
| Piwo jasne mocne |
6-9% |
14-18° |
A pale strong lager, a minimum of 14° Plato. It covers some beers
that could be classified as pale Bocks and others that fall between
a Spezial and a Bock. |
| Märzen |
6 - 7% |
14° |
Amber lager. Though they don't use the name, there are a couple
of beers in this style. |
| Bock |
7 - 10% |
16-20° |
Amber lager. There are some examples of this style, though not always
called Bock by name. The true Polish term is "Kożlak". |
| Piwo ciemne |
6 - 7% |
13-14° |
Dark lager. Usually the strength of a Dunkles Export rather than
a Münchener. Not that many breweries still produce one and they are
a somewhat endangered species. Which is as shame as all the pale lagers
can get quite boring. Also called "Piwo czarne". |
| Porter |
8 - 9% |
18-20° |
Strong porters, sometimes called "piwo ciemne mocne".
Usually the only draught alternative to pale lagers. True baltic-style
porters, they are too much on the treacle/cough medicine side for
some. In the last couple of years several breweries - notably the
Carlsberg owned ones, such as Okocim - have dropped their porters.
Currently around 10 breweries still produce one. Zywiec is the most
common and seems to be the only draught porter still made. |
|
Top-fermenting
Styles
 Poland's
only truly interesting indigenous beer style was Grodziskie,
a top-fermented smoked wheat beer. It was the last survivor of a style called
Grätzer (derived from Grätz, the German name for Grodzisk) and was once
popular across northern Germany. The only brewery producing it was closed
sometime in the mid-1990's. The owner, Lech, argued that continuing production
there was "uneconomical". So, that's one more beer style to cross
off the list.
The only top-fermented beer currently being mass-produced (that is, not
by a pub brewery) is a version of the Belgian pale ale Palm. The Belgian
brewery has bought into an existing Polish enterprise and helped them build
a new brewery. The new company is, slightly oddly, called Browar Belgia.
There are some amber beers which claim to be brewed to an Irish recipe and
have inspiring names such as "Belfast". Without any evidence to
the contrary, it is probably safe to assume that these are, in reality,
bottom-fermented beers of indeterminate style.
|
Grodziskie (Grätzer Bier)
Grodziskie was the only truly ingidenous Polish beer style to survie in
the second half of the 20th century. It was a top-fermented, smoked wheat
beer. It was the last survivor of a style called Grätzer (derived from Grätz,
the German name for Grodzisk) and was once popular across northern Germany.
This is the earliest mention I've found of the style:
"Pohlnische Biere. Pohlen liebet besonders die weißen Biere,
die es auch verschieden, und sehr vortrefflich, hat; z. E. das Gräzer
und Lobsenzer, vornehmlich aber das Waretsker Bier, welches
leztere, wenn es alt geworden, an Klarheit und Farbe dem Weine gleichet."
"Polish beers. Poland especially likes white beers, of which
it has several excellent ones, for example Gräzer and Lobsenzer,
but mostly Waretsker Beer, of which the latter, when aged, resembles
wine in colour and clarity."
"Oeconomischen Encyclopädie
of 1773
Grodziskie (or Grätzer as it was called in German) seems to have been quite
common pre WW 1, as the name crops up quite a bit. I recently found this:
"Nach den vorliegenden Angaben sind beim Verkauf in Fässern von den Brauereien
abgesetzt worden: gewöhnliche obergärige Biere bis zu 12 M., bessere Sorten
in der Regel zu 12 - 18 M. (Grätzer Bier 12 M.), untergärige Schankbiere
zu 14-18 M., Lagerbier meist 17-25 M. für 1 hl."
Zeitschrift für das gesammte Brauwesen 1894, p.31
Its talking about the wholesale price of draught beer in the Brausteuergebiet
(all of German territory at the time, except Bavaria, Baden, Württemburg,
Alsace Lorraine and Luxemburg): -
- ordinary top-fermening beer up to 12 M. per hl
- better types of top-fermenting beer 12-18 M. per hl (Grätzer Bier
12 M.)
- bottom-fermenting Schankbier (I guess 10° Plato or less) 14-18 M.
per hl
- Lagerbier mostly 17-25 M.
Whats interesting is:
- Grätzer is the only specific style named;
- even the weakest bottom-fermenting beer is the same price as the best
top-fermenting beer.
I think its safe to assume that at this time Grätzer was pretty well-known.
In 1894 the district Posen (now the Polsh Poznań) had 158 breweries of which
101 were top-fermenting, producing between them 177,038 hl in the brewing
year 192/93. The 57 bottom-fermenting breweries produced much more - 307,800
hl. Which made the proportions 37% top-fermenting, 63% bottom-fermenting.
The only region producing a higher percentage of top-fermenting beer was
the Kingdom of Saxony at 41%. (Over the whole Brausteuergebiet percentage
of top-fermenting beer was 23%.) (Source: Zeitschrift für das gesammte
Brauwesen 1894, p.23)
In "Księga Piw i Browarow Polskich" ("Book of Polish Beer and Breweries"),
Tadeusz Kaczmarek, 1994 dedicates pages 266 to 274 to Grodziskie. Heres
a summary of the most interesting bits.
- Its thought that it was first brewed sometime in the 14th century.
- It was related to German Weissbier, but had its own specific taste
from the use of smoked wheat malt.
- It was brewed using an infusion mash.
- It was bottle-conditioned.
The 5 breweries in Grodzisk (Grätz) produced:
| year |
output (hl) |
| 1863 |
7,000 |
| 1873 |
20,000 |
| 1883 |
70,000 |
| 1893 |
80,000 |
| 1900 |
100,000 |
Source:
"Ksiega Piw i Browarów Polskich" ("Book of Polish Beer and Breweries"),
Tadeusz Kaczmarek, 1994, pages 269 |
In the 1990s 3 variations were produced:
| |
Plato |
ABV |
| Grodziskie |
7.7° |
2.5% |
| Grodzisz |
12° |
3.5% |
| Bernadyńskie |
14° |
3-5% |
Its one of my lasting regrets that I never tasted Grodziskie, despite having
visited Poland when it was still brewed.
|
Where
to buy Polish beer
The German site appeti sells
a small range of Polish beers online.
|
There
are currently around 70 breweries operating in Poland. The distribution
is reasonably even around the country, but there is a slight preponderance
in the South and West - areas which were formerly under German or Austrian
control. 