The Place and The Beer Part 3: Browarium Sklepy Piwne, Slupsk, Poland

BROWARIUM - SKLEPY PIWNE

ul. Plac Dąbrowskiego 3, 76-200 Słupsk

Today a very special visit.

I have collaborated with Browarium since I have moved to Belgium and honestly, I couldn’t imagine a better partner. Professional, well connected and having access to rare beers – yes, I have got Imperium Prunum (second edition). Sadly, our communication so far has been restricted to email and Facebook. Therefore, coming back from holidays, I have decided that it is time to meet the owners in persona. Słupsk is on the way from 3City to Belgium, therefore no excuses.

The story of Browarium is a success story: Natalia and Krystian have started with their own pub in 2010, that have developed into a first craft beer bottle shop in Słupsk (2011). They have convinced the local community that beer is more than a light company lager. The growth is enormous: starting with the old location and 300 beers they have recently moved to a newer bigger place and are having over 1000 various beers from Poland and more on sale.

Impressive.

Clearly, they have been recognized by the community, Browarium have won Ratebeer award for the best beer shop in Poland in 2016.

Congratulations.

And I hope all the best for you guys.

Enough introduction. The shop is impressive, maybe not from the outside, but inside is the wet dream of any craft beer lover. Beer, more beer and even more beer. Local breweries, craft breweries around Poland and the rest of the world. Glassware, T-shirts you name it. What is more important both owners know what they are selling and doing. They both are beer lovers and will offer professional help if you need it. They also have a great website (www.ebrowarium.pl) and will be happy to help all you folks living abroad and interested in Polish craft.

The beer of the day is Bloody Belfegor from Szałpiw (https://www.facebook.com/szalpiw). Why it is connected to the shop? First: it is a present I got from Natalia when visiting. Second: the beer is as impressive as the shop. Bloody Belfegor is blackcurrant Belgian dark strong ale.  Dark-brown, low carbonation, aroma of blackcurrant, malt and Belgian yeast. Well balanced sour-malt taste. Clear Belgium but with a twist. 9% Alcohol is well composed and not detectable. Very, very good beer.  

Gosebuster, salted caramel dark gose

GOSEBUSTER





Style: gose
Brewed: Browar Kingpin/Freigeist Bierkultur
Tested: Bottle,  17 August 2016

I think that I have to start with some explanation here. Gose is a type of rather sour, light wheat beer that originates from Goslar in Germany (lower Saxony). Even if not very popular around the world, this style is very traditional and beloved in some regions (Lepizig). Thinking about similarities – Polish Grodziskie or German Berliner Weisse would be close enough.

 

Wheat? Should it be dark – one could ask? In fact it shouldn’t, but as mentioned over and over – we have an experimentation year. Plus, I strongly think that it is important to cultivate and preserve traditional European beer styles. The power of craft is the power of finding a beer style that you like (if everybody just brews IPA it would be boring)*.

Enough talking. How is the Gosebuster? Amazing. It pours dark brown/orange. Is not too strong carbonated (I had to make some efforts to obtain the head you see on the picture). Aroma is sour and caramel. Surprisingly, I do not taste caramel, overall taste is mild sour and flowery. Salt provides an excellent finish, in fact where in some American style beers you have a bitter after taste, here you have a salty aftertaste. All added together, Gosebuster may be the most refreshing drink I know. Certainly the experiment that went well. It is a bloody good beer and really worth trying.

* just one more thing that convince me – look at the notes that beer gets on Ratebeer. People are very well characterizing this beer (sour etc.) and then they say that it is not their case. Bang! 2 points out of 5! So the excellent gose has a low score for being a gose (and the average score for gose-type beers is very low as well). Just sad.