Thread attached on merging: What is your favorite Polish piwo?
Many people make the mistake of thinking that Poland is just another vodka nation, in fact, Poland ranks 10th in beer consumption... according to BeerAdvocate.com. So I am curious, if you have one, what is your favorite Polish beer? Mine is Piast lager, followed by Zyweic.
Thread attached on merging: Polish Beers - Good, Bad, The Ugly
Most Polish beer is awesome and does not give me a hangover ever. Some I like more than others, but here is what I know. Polish beer is as good as any other or better is somes estimations.
Many Polish beers are brewed by U.S. companies, or their subsidiaries in Poland. The brewing process is modern and the same in both European and U.S. facilities.
Since the 90's many small Polish breweries have been bought out by major companies.
SAB-Miller now brews Warka and since 1999 brews Lech
Henieken now brews Zywiec and Tyskie
The only real Polish brews that I know of are mostly micro brews by U.S. standards and are hard to find, but are worth it -
Some small Polish brewers still doing it the old way are :
Tatra
Perla - still wholly owned and one of the finest quality tastiest Polish brews around in my opinion.
Freeq is bloody dreadful, don't go near it...the lime one was particularly upsetting as it was so crap :(
That Gingers beer is absolutely lethal though, to anyone from the UK, it just tastes like ginger beer from a can. It'd be far, far, far too easy to drink yourself to death on that stuff :/
I have tasted most of the Polish beers now they are widely available in the UK.
IMO many of them taste similar, they are usually very drinkable quite thin and perhaps a bit sweet/syrupy?
A friend of mine (German) says that the Polish brew there beers with glucose syrup to save on the cost of malted barley, and also to add extra alcohol.
Perhaps that is why I have found them to be a bit thin and syrupy?
They are still decent lagers though especially if you are looking for a bit extra alcohol in your beer.
Much better than the majority of lager brewed in the UK.
A friend of mine (German) says that the Polish brew there beers with glucose syrup to save on the cost of malted barley, and also to add extra alcohol.
Maybe so - a lot of the Polish breweries have been taken over by the big multinationals and they look to cut costs. It might even be that their own beers are just pumped out in Poland but under a Polish brand - Zywiec is basically Heineken these days...
No matter who is behind that, it should be forbidden and handled like the Reinheitsgebot in Germany, wherein only water, barley and hops is allowed in beer.