Category: breweries

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breweries Poland

Polish beer – why isn’t it good? (Polish beer history part 1)

I’ve got a great fondness for Poland and the Poles, and starting this blog has finally motivated me to try and answer a long-standing question – Why isn’t Polish beer very good? Why are brewing traditions so strong in the Czech Republic and Germany but not (it seems) in Poland?

Zywiec

Zywiec – ubiquitous in Poland, now available in Wetherspoon’s pubs in the UK

Don’t get me wrong – Polish beer isn’t bad, it’s just that the big brands are not particularly impressive or original. I’ve tried most of the major Polish brews in my time (Zywiec, Lech, EB, Okocim, Tyskie to name a few) and have barely been able to tell the difference.

I thought this might have been my unsophisticated tastebuds, but a quick bit of internet research confirms that the vast majority of Polish brands are owned by 3 breweries, who are in turn owned by foreign multinationals who tend to specialise in bland lager;

  • SABMiller own Kompania Piwowarska, who make Lech and Tyskie (also Zubr and Debowe Mocne, which seem ubiquitous in London cornershops)
  • The Zywiec group is owned by Heineken, who also own Elbrewery (EB) and Warka
  • Carlsberg produce Okocim

Following the fall of communism, state-owned breweries were rapidly privatised and were a good target for merger activity, a process which is described in an academic paper by Michal Gorzynski – which accounts for the current position.

But were the breweries any good before this? I would love to find out more about this, but it would seem that the old state-owned breweries were even worse. Michal Gorzynski states that breweries in the early 90s started to produce beer of better quality. There has certainly been a huge growth in the beer market in Poland since privatisation (according to Rafal Tarnowski, “Industrial Relations in the Brewing Industry” beer sales rose 135% in the 1990s. Is this down to a triumph of marketing (check out the Zywiec link to see their award winning campaigns) or a better product?

Beer is certainly a young person’s drink in Poland – the over 30s tend to prefer vodka. Is the lack of excellent Polish brews down to the fantastic range and quality of the vodka?

An even more interesting question – given that a lot of modern day Poland was part of Germany, what happened to all the breweries?

More research to come on this (if anyone has some good sources of information, please let me know!).

In the meantime, here’s a link to a very informative site (in English) about the types of Polish beer, including a fascinating piece on the one “native” Polish beer, “grodziskie” or “Gratzer”, a top-fermented smoked wheatbeer. It also includes a list of Polish breweries, including some of the new exciting brew pubs. European beer guide – Polish breweries

Boak

Categories
Beer history breweries

The Anglo-Bavarian Brewery

William Henry Hudson’s Afoot in England (1909) is a memoir/guide book, which takes a snooty tone in places. This passage (from the Project Gutenberg etext) caught my eye because it mentions the Anglo-Bavarian brewery in Shepton Mallet, Somerset:

I went on a Saturday to Shepton Mallet. A small, squalid town, a “manufacturing town” the guide-book calls it. Well, yes; it manufactures Anglo-Bavarian beer in a gigantic brewery which looks bigger than all the other buildings together, the church and a dozen or twenty public-houses included. To get some food I went to the only eating-house in the place, and saw a pleasant-looking woman, plump and high-coloured, with black hair, with an expression of good humour and goodness of every description in her comely countenance. She promised to have a chop ready by the time I had finished looking at the church, and I said I would have it with a small Guinness. She could not provide that, the house, she said, was strictly temperance. “My doctor has ordered me to take it,” said I, “and if you are religious, remember that St. Paul tells us to take a little stout when we find it beneficial.”

“Yes, I know that’s what St. Paul says,” she returned, with a heightened colour and a vicious emphasis on the saint’s name,”but we go on a different principle.”

The Anglo-Bavarian brewery opened in 1864, making pale ale, but is really notable as the first brewery in Britain to make lager. It employed German brewers from 1873 onward, and won awards worldwide for it’s German-style beer. Of course, when World War I kicked off in 1914, they changed the name to “The Anglo”, but it was too late: the Bavarian flags and symbols all over the building led to it being trashed. It closed in 1920. The building is still there, but in bad shape (read more at English Heritage).

Nowadays, the most famous drink being made in Shepton Mallet is Babycham.

Categories
breweries Nice places to drink in... pubs

Nice places to drink in Regensburg, East Bavaria

Kneitinger Bock

Regensburg is one of my favourite cities. It’s beautiful (a medieval bridge and town centre spanning the Danube) with an oddly “Latin” feel. Apparently it’s known as “the northernmost city of Italy”, which could be because of the mild climate, the Italian-style architecture, or perhaps the hundreds of Italian restaurants and ice-cream cafes.

One thing that is resolutely German, however, is the availability of fantastic beer. There are three breweries in town – Spital, Bishofshof and Kneitinger – plus lots of local producers with outlets in town. There are hundreds, if not thousands of places to drink, so these suggestions are not supposed to be exhaustive – just enough for a taster. See link below for a Google map of the area.

Spitalgarten

A large beer garden on one of Regensburg’s islands, serving, unsurprisingly, Spitalbrau. Helles and Weizen very nice, but the pils is outstanding – very distinct hop flavour and aroma, which distinguishes it from other beers of this style.

There’s another beer garden, “Alte Linde”, slightly closer to the town centre, which all the guidebooks rate. They serve Kneitinger.

Kneitinger

The brewery and pub are connected; the pub itself has several sections, from a rough and ready beer hall to a more upmarket restaurant area. It’s an interesting building – presumably it was once a stable or something similar, as the floor of the “beer hall” bit is cobbles. Kneitinger do an Edelpils, a Dunkel, and a Bock.

The Bock is something special – it’s dark, rich and chocolatey, and they’re justifiably proud of it. It’s featured in Michael “The Beerhunter” Jackson’s Great Beer Guide. Amazon link

Bishofshof

You can drink Bishofshof within the Bishofshof (Bishop’s Palace) itself. We also found a lovely quiet beer garden just round the corner from Kneitinger which had the full Bischofshof range together with Weltenberger Klosterbrau (the two breweries are related, though I don’t know who owns who). Weltenberger Barock-Dunkel and Dunkle-Weiss both make it into Michael Jackson’s 500.

Fuerstliches Brauhaus

This seems to be a spin-off from Thurn und Taxis, a brewery which used to be based in Regensburg. They brew their own on the premises and also stock the full T&T range. Nice airey beer hall, with a picturesque beer garden set in the T&T castle grounds.

Zum Augustiner

A beer hall and garden stocking Thurn & Taxis.

Links

Google Map of Regensburg with these pubs marked

Spital, including cheesy picture from Spital beer garden – check out the virtual brewery tour!

Kneitinger (in German)

Bischofshof (in German)

Weltenburger Kloster (in German)

 

Wikitravel – Regensburg

Boak

Categories
breweries News

New (old) brewery in the Hebrides

An interesting story on BBC News Online – after 500 years without, the island of Colonsay in the Hebrides has a brewery again.

The head brewer at the Colonsay Brewery says they’ll make an India Pale Ale, an 80 shilling and a lager. It’s probably cold enough for good lagering up there, so it might be decent.

[BBC News Online]