The latest issue of Zymurgy has a great, great article on Grodziskie. On my last trip through Poland (mostly through rural areas), I didn’t find this. Anyone know where to expect to find it beyond where it is made or if it is imported?
I’m no expert, just a random traveler. The best I could find was on tap, Okocim. The Polish do meats and mushrooms very well, and pairing anything like that with Okocim was great (and notably inexpensive; $2 a liter).
A question is what are craft or BJCP beer judges looking for in good Pilsners. Most of the pilsner beers there were advertised as award winning, but if it was good it was also quite green. This meant huge yeast aromas, much more than I’ve ever noticed before. I’m wondering if that is desirable or simply different from the beers sent to contests.
Would love to find something like either one of these in the US.
Graetzer (in German) pretty much went out of style. Choc brewing in Oklahoma made one recently, using oak smoked wheat malt that they convinced Weyermanns to make. I think if you look the article over closely, it says it is not made anymore in Poland.
Gratzer has made a comeback recently due to Polish Homebrewers. I tried a homebrewed version version of Gratzer at my last HBCM and was really impressed. This is a beer that will pair well with food
IMO. The saltiness of the beer compliments meats and cheeses very well. I think this beer pairs very well with BBQ as well.
I recently brewed a Gratzer (Grodziskie), and in my research, found that originally the beer was brewed with water fairly high in minerals. The finished beer definitely has a bit of that minerally quality to it, so maybe that’s the salty you’re picking up Ron? This beer definitely pairs well with traditional Polish food.
As far as beer in Poland today, you’re mostly going to find German or Bohemian Pilsner type beers. Some are very good, many are very mediocre. Quite a few breweries make excellent Baltic Porters. You should be able to find Polish brewed Porters in the states as well. Okocim brews a nice one.
The levels for sodium and chloride in the Zymurgy article are well within the limits that Martin lays out in Brunwater. The bicarbonate is really high, and the RA for the water given would not fit for a beer with a 3-6 SRM. I have e-mailed Jill Redding to see if there is anything the author can tells us about the water or process (boiling or lime treatment).
Jeff…you are absolutely right about a Gose being salty and a Gratzer consisting of smoked wheat and an intense hop flavor. I was inadvertently confusing the two styles.
Moreover, there’s a Homebrewer in my club that has brewed both styles and the Gose was salty indeed, whereas the Gratzer was a lightly smoked wheat based beer with a moderate hop character. They both pair well with food IMO. The Gratzer is definitely more sessionable of the two due to the saltiness of the Gose.
The author responded to me. He states that the acid rest in the mash schedule is all that he knows they do. Is that enough to lower the pH. Might have to do a quick experiment with my tap water, which is close to the water profile in the article. Just need some wheat malt.