Ruvani de Silva

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So, what is Grodziskie?

Grodziskie is a 100% smoked wheat beer, brewed with Polish noble hops and historically top-fermented, from the town of Grodzisk Wielkopolski in the central west of Poland, close to the German border.

Key characteristics of Grodziskie are its full smoky aroma and flavour, which come from using 100% oak smoked wheat, and its clear light body, which was traditionally fined with isinglass, removing the haze often associated with wheat beers, although modern brewing techniques have negated the need for this step. It has a low ABV – usually less than 4%, and can drop to as little as 2%. Grodziskie is highly carbonated – traditionally bottled or kegged before fermentation was complete to give the beer a rich full foamy long-lasting head made of tight white bubbles. 

While it can be made with any Polish noble hop, Nowotomyski is the hop most closely associated with Grodziskie in its original form, and the primary choice for contemporary brewers recreating it, another prong in the beer’s dramatic history. Grodziskie was originally made with a combination of two different yeast strains to create the correct level of flocculation, although only one of these has been successfully recaptured to date. Falling outside the major European beer style trends, neither a classic wheat beer or lager, you might expect that Grodziskie was a niche product only drunk by locals, but Grodziskie’s magic touch of floral hop crispness, bright minerality and warm smoky sweetness ensured that, for a significant amount of time, it was a premium beverage with a wide reach, available in 37 countries at its prime, less than 100 years ago.  

“You get soft, almost wine like aromatics, refeshing… acidity and apple driven, when you try Kent and Eastern style ciders”

— Alison Taffs

Something in the water

Beer has been made in Poland for over a thousand years, and was almost certainly brewed in Grodzisk Wielkopolski from the town’s inception at around 1257 AD. However, a specific incident shot Grodziskie to fame in 1603 when a purported miracle occurred, performed by the Benedictine monk Bernard of Wąbrzeźno.

Hailing from the nearby abbey of Lubin, legend has it that Wąbrzeźno arrived into Grodzisk Wielkopolski to find the town decimated by drought, with its residents sick and impoverished, the primary source of income for the town being its brewing industry. Wąbrzeźno promptly set to work praying over the nearby wells with such devotion that the old market well in the centre of the town sprung back to life, saving the townsfolk and rekindling the brewing industry. Word quickly got around that not only was the new water supply vastly superior in quality, it also had healing properties.

Thus Wąbrzeźno became immortalized in local lore, credited for the town’s subsequent brewing successes, and even recommended for sainthood. All because he helped the Grodzisk citizens make great beer.

Something in the water

Beer has been made in Poland for over a thousand years, and was almost certainly brewed in Grodzisk Wielkopolski from the town’s inception at around 1257 AD. However, a specific incident shot Grodziskie to fame in 1603 when a purported miracle occurred, performed by the Benedictine monk Bernard of Wąbrzeźno. Hailing from the nearby abbey of Lubin, legend has it that Wąbrzeźno arrived into Grodzisk Wielkopolski to find the town decimated by drought, with its residents sick and impoverished, the primary source of income for the town being its brewing industry. Wąbrzeźno promptly set to work praying over the nearby wells with such devotion that the old market well in the centre of the town sprung back to life, saving the townsfolk and rekindling the brewing industry. Word quickly got around that not only was the new water supply vastly superior in quality, it also had healing properties. Thus Wąbrzeźno became immortalized in local lore, credited for the town’s subsequent brewing successes, and even recommended for sainthood. All because he helped the Grodzisk citizens make great beer.   

A high value item

All this good publicity made for a growing demand for Grodziskie, so much so that its value rose to the point where local legislators insisted on quality control standards to prevent the sale of any product that wasn’t up to standard. Their rather unusual method of enforcement required brewers to present their beer to the mayor and a council of elders who decided if it was good enough to receive the official stamp of the city – a canny tactic for those in charge to get free beer, but brewers who tried to cheat the system risked having their license revoked.

The miracle well blessed by Bernard of Wąbrzeźno also created an additional complication for those trying to brew this lucrative commodity, as the powerful local maltsters and brewers guild retained a monopoly on its use, somewhat inevitably taxing those who wished to draw from it. However, those outside the guild got fed up of being taken advantage of and began experimenting, and by the 19^th century they had established that water sourced from nearby wells was just as good for brewing and that was the end of that. 

“The team used old bottles to capture and propagate one of the original Grodzskie yeasts, and created their own malting recipe based on the records they found. “

— Ruvani de Silva

“You get soft, almost wine like aromatics, refeshing… acidity and apple driven, when you try Kent and Eastern style ciders”

— Alison Taffs

By this time, Grodziskie was one of the most expensive beers in Poland and being widely exported, following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, when Grodzisk became part of Prussia. Renamed Grätz by the Prussians, the city attracted a wave of German immigrants, who broke the power of the guild and brought with them new industrialised brewing methods that substantially increased the town’s brewing capacity, which reached over 100,000 hectoliters (85,000 U.S. bbl) by the 1890s. The newly named Grätzer took off across Europe and beyond, and became so popular that British investors even tried to buy up the five Grätz breweries producing it in 1888. By the interwar period, ‘Polish Champagne’ was in its greatest ascendancy, exporting to 37 countries. So what went wrong? 

Decline and fall

After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the Polish government placed a protected regional designation, similar to those seen in the wine world, on the now-renamed Grodziskie, which remained in place from 1929 to 1993. However, while the popularity of the style soared, the number of breweries making it shrank from five in the 1890s to just one – Zjednoczone Browary Grodziskie (United Grodzisk Breweries) – by 1922.

Although the brewery survived the war and German occupation, the post-war communist government nationalised breweries, and along with other small-scale regional specialities. Grodziskie fell into decline at the expense of industrialised food production and an inability to advertise or export nationally or internationally. Although attempts were made to revive the style in the 1980s, the brewery, in private hands after the end of the communist regime in 1989, eventually closed in 1993. But Grodziskie’s story doesn’t end here – between the efforts of a dedicated group of homebrewers, a speciality hop farmer, an ambitious brewery CEO and the interest of a some influential American beer writers and brewers, Grodziskie is back in business, and its new iterations are the perfect combination of traditional technique and modern innovation.  

Cross-continental curiosity

As with any great comeback story, versions differ as to how exactly Grodziskie got its groove back. A fact that is undisputed is that veteran beer writer Randy Mosher brewed a version of Grodziskie in 1997 for his colleague, the late great Michael Jackson, who comments on the beer in his forward for Mosher’s book Radial Brewing, which also features the recipe that Mosher used. While this can be seen the start of Grodziskie’s revival, murmurings in the American craft beer community remained just that, until the Polish Homebrewer’s Association picked up on a growing interest in the style among its members and formed a commission to bring it back to life. 

When American homebrewer Shawn Scott got wind of this, he flew to Germany to meet with the commission and took their findings back to Oklahoma with him, where he brewed his own version at Krebs Brewery (now owners of Prairie Artisan Ales), named Signature Grätzer, using authentic Grodziskie yeast and oak smoked malt from the Weyermann Malting Company in Germany like the Polish homebrewers were.

Scott shared his experiences in industry publications where they attracted the attention of Live Oak Brewing, a European Lager speciality brewery in Austin, Texas. Spurred by curiosity, owner Chip McElroy and head brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski brewed their first Grodziskie in 2014, and began playing around with different combinations of noble hops and experimenting with ale and lager yeasts to find the perfect combination. Grodziskie would go on to become a passion and a flagship beer for Live Oak, who are now the foremost producers of the style in the US. 

Cross-continental curiosity

As with any great comeback story, versions differ as to how exactly Grodziskie got its groove back. A fact that is undisputed is that veteran beer writer Randy Mosher brewed a version of Grodziskie in 1997 for his colleague, the late great Michael Jackson, who comments on the beer in his forward for Mosher’s book Radial Brewing, which also features the recipe that Mosher used.

While this can be seen the start of Grodziskie’s revival, murmurings in the American craft beer community remained just that, until the Polish Homebrewer’s Association picked up on a growing interest in the style among its members and formed a commission to bring it back to life. When American homebrewer Shawn Scott got wind of this, he flew to Germany to meet with the commission and took their findings back to Oklahoma with him, where he brewed his own version at Krebs Brewery (now owners of Prairie Artisan Ales), named Signature Grätzer, using authentic Grodziskie yeast and oak smoked malt from the Weyermann Malting Company in Germany like the Polish homebrewers were.

Scott shared his experiences in industry publications where they attracted the attention of Live Oak Brewing, a European Lager speciality brewery in Austin, Texas. Spurred by curiosity, owner Chip McElroy and head brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski brewed their first Grodziskie in 2014, and began playing around with different combinations of noble hops and experimenting with ale and lager yeasts to find the perfect combination. Grodziskie would go on to become a passion and a flagship beer for Live Oak, who are now the foremost producers of the style in the US. 

Meanwhile back in Europe, interest in reviving the style had moved into commercial territory. A new independent brewery, Browar Grodzisk, whose CEO Krzysztof Panek is also president of Poland’s Browar Fortuna, won the tender to the ruined United Grodzisk Brewery site in 2012. They began renovations, with the goal of rebuilding the brewery and producing the most authentic representation of Grodziskie possible on the site where it was originally made.

This was not an easy task. Although Panek and his head brewer Marcin Ostajewski were furnished with ample information about the ingredients and brewing process from the brewery’s archives and local residents who had worked at the brewery prior to its closure, actually sourcing authentic ingredients was a problem.

The team used old bottles to capture and propagate one of the original Grodzskie yeasts, and created their own malting recipe based on the records they found, which they outsource to Czech malting house Sladovna Bruntál. But in order to make a fully authentic beer, Browar Grodzisk, required Polish Nowotomyski hops, a noble variety of hop that had not been farmed since World War II. Without them, it would be impossible to capture the flavour of the original beer. Fortunately fate stepped in again. 

Dodging the Nazis

As if Grodziskie isn’t already tied to enough local legend, Poland’s only recognised national beer style had another narrow escape – this time from the Nazis. We all know how the Nazis like to burn things of cultural value, and Nowotomyski was no exception. The Nazis had been happily chugging Grodziskie throughout the war, making the most of occupied Poland’s local brew to the point that there’s an urban myth about a case of it that German soldiers had been forced to abandon being discovered buried somewhere in the Sahara in the 1950s.  

Nevertheless, as the tide turned against the Third Reich and it became clear that Poland would not be under German control for much longer, the delicious Nowotomyski became a threat to the hop farmers across the border back in Germany. What happened next should come as no surprise. 

Dodging the Nazis

As if Grodziskie isn’t already tied to enough local legend, Poland’s only recognised national beer style had another narrow escape – this time from the Nazis. We all know how the Nazis like to burn things of cultural value, and Nowotomyski was no exception. The Nazis had been happily chugging Grodziskie throughout the war, making the most of occupied Poland’s local brew to the point that there’s an urban myth about a case of it that German soldiers had been forced to abandon being discovered buried somewhere in the Sahara in the 1950s. 

Nevertheless, as the tide turned against the Third Reich and it became clear that Poland would not be under German control for much longer, the delicious Nowotomyski became a threat to the hop farmers across the border back in Germany. What happened next should come as no surprise.

The Nazis set fire to every Nowotomyski field they could find – purportedly to keep German hop market dominance, although a good measure of spite was probably involved too. Ah, but those clever Polish hop farmers knew what was coming, and one or two of them had planted Nowotomyski deep in the heart of the nearby forest land, far from prying Nazi eyes. These same farmers, after the war, harvested the hops and sent specimens to Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation in Puławy, where they were preserved for over 70 years, until hop farmer Pavel Pilat, owner of Polish Hops, approached the Institute for samples. Keen to cultivate authentic Polish hops, Pilat harvested his first full crop of Nowotomyski in 2020, which both Browar Grodzisk and Live Oak have been using since. 

“You get soft, almost wine like aromatics, refeshing… acidity and apple driven, when you try Kent and Eastern style ciders”

— Alison Taffs

Collaborative love

It was only a matter of time before the two breweries labouring to create the perfect Grodziskie on opposite sides of the pond got wind of each other. Popular Polish beer vlogger (and member of the Polish Homebrewer’s Association) Tomasz Kopyra reviewed Live Oak’s Grodziskie on his site, where it caught the interest of the team at Browar Grodzisk, who were surprised to find an American brewery creating their hometown beer. A short flurry of emails later, McElroy and Kwiatkowski were on a plane to Poland, where they brewed what is almost certainly the first international collaboration Grodziskie – a 7% imperial version to celebrate the coming together of an international coterie of Grodziskie experts. This high-octane take on the style was made using Zibi and Zula, two new Polish hop varietals with pronounced stone fruit aroma and flavour, the smokiness was slightly dialed back to accommodate the higher ABV.

It was during this visit that the Americans first discovered Nowotomyski, and switched out the Saaz they had previously been using for the heirloom hop once it was harvestable. They also decided to swap Weyermann malt for Browar Grodzisk’s Sladovna Bruntál recipe, both of which they continue to use in their recipe. The two teams remain close and have subsequently worked on other beer collaborations together, as well as continuing to champion Grodziskie’s revival. 

Modern Times

In Poland and the US, others have now followed where Browar Grodzisk and Live Oak led, although both remain among the very few breweries in the world to make the style all year round. In Poland, breweries including Pinta and Trzech Kumpli make the style seasonally, and interest is growing across the US, from Chicago’s Dovetail to Minneapolis’s Fair State Co-op and Cleveland’s Noble Beast. In 2021, Kwiatkowski, now established as the go-to US authority on the style, travelled to four breweries around the country (Fonta Flora, Goldfinger, Fox Farm and Orkenoy) to brew collaboration Grodziskies with them to help the style gain wider recognition.

Different breweries put their own spin on the style, with most using Saaz or other noble hops that are easier to source than Nowotomyski, and smoked malt produced locally or from Weyermann. Live Oak have now settled on making theirs using their house lager yeast, and although the beer was traditionally made with ale yeast they have been successful in capturing its key characteristics, while Browar Grodzisk continue to use the original yeast sourced from the brewery. Obviously, no one outside of Grodzisk Wielkopolski is able to brew Grodziskie with the fabled local water, which adds a specific subtle softness but the essential combination of 100% oak smoked malt, noble hops, high carbonation and low ABV remain at the heart of the style, and are the essential elements a brewer needs to name their beer a Grodziskie. 

Grodziskie in the UK

While the style has yet to catch on in the UK in the way that it has in the US and Poland, Derbyshire’s Torrside Brewing produce a 2.8% Grodziskie named Sto Lat as part of their core range. Sto Lat is single-hopped with Polish Lubelski hops, which have traditional noble hop characteristics suitable for the style, and fermented with English ale yeast, which gives the beer a touch of light fruitiness, so it’s not quite as dry as its Polish and American counterparts, but still clean and crisp. Torrside have a strong focus on smoked beers, which brought Grodziskie to their attention, and although it remains a difficult sell to pubs unfamiliar with the style, they are passionate advocates for ‘Polish Champagne’, and keep it on draft in their taproom to entice new drinkers to try something different. Torrside have also experimented with small-batch imperial and coffee versions of Grodziskie, pushing the style boundary with a complementary flavour.

From the blessed spring water of Western Poland to the Texas Hill Country to a coffee-brewed small batch in central England, Grodziskie has had a long and fascinating life, and now that its star is once again in ascension, we may see it as a regular beer menu feature in the not-too-distant future.