As I’m working on my new book project, I found some great sources about a beer style that I had heard about but didn’t know much about: Breslauer Schöps, hailing from the Lower Silesian city of Wrocław in modern-day Poland.
It was probably not so much a single beer style, but rather four related ones. Think about it as a 2-by-2 matrix: one dimension was beer colour that distinguished between brown Schöps and white Schöps, while the other dimension distinguished between regular strength Schöps and Doppelbier, a slightly stronger version.
The historic sources are quite specific about it: the dark version was described as black to brown, with a very roasted taste to it, but otherwise clear. The pale version on the other hand was simply brewed from 100% air-dried or otherwise very pale malt.
In terms of strength, regular Schöps had an original gravity of about 8°P, while the Doppelbier variant was not double the strength, but rather only 1.5 times as strong, with about 12°P.
Brewing in Wrocław had been regulated in a guild since 1582 that made it exceptionally difficult to enter the brewing trade in the city unless you were born into a brewer family or got married to a brewers’ widow. Malt making was communal, which actually had the interesting effect that the communal malthouses were kept modern: in 1872, they were described as being at least partially automated, with automated cleaning machinery steam-powered malt mills, and even double-floor kilns.
But what specifically caught my eye was how Schöps was fermented: very quickly, at high temperatures for Central European brewing. The yeast was pitched at 35 to 37°C, fermentation started quickly, and the beer was finished fermenting in 12 to 18 hours. Historic descriptions give a strong indication for mixed fermentation, as the beer was described as having a sour tang similar to buttermilk. Because of this, Schöps was called a “three-day-beer”: “brewed today, fermented tomorrow, and consumed with joy on the third day”. For the Doppelbier, FG dropped down to about 4°P, while for the single strength Schöps, a FG of 3°P was expected.
The pitching temperature and fast fermentation really sound more like farmhouse yeasts. Was there any relationship to any of the strains still around today? We may never know, because Schöps as a beer style unfortunately went extinct.
Earlier this month, I was invited to speak at the Sympozjum Piwowarów (lit. “Brewers’ Symposium”) in Kraków, Poland, which happened on 10th to 11th December, 2024.
At the Heimbrau Convention in Romrod earlier this year, I met the President of the PSBR, the Polish Association of Craft Breweries, who invited me to talk about the history of Vienna Lager, which I gladly accepted.
The journey from Berlin to Kraków is straightforward, but not exactly fast: a direct train line connects both cities, but it takes about 7 hours in each direction. On the positive side, PKPIC, the Polish train company operating InterCity trains, seem to be operating more reliably and more on time than Deutsche Bahn (DB), and even apologised for slight delays that would still be within DB’s definition of “being on time”.
On the evening before the conference, we attended the party for conference attendants. We didn’t stay too long, but it was great to meet a few people and shake a few hands. The conference venue was Klub STUDIO, a bit outside the city center, in the middle of what seemed like blocks and blocks of student accomodation. One of the great things about it though is that it comes with a brewery, Browar Górniczo-Hutniczy.
On the first day, I watched the talks of Randy Mosher, who spoke about the scientific taste of smell and taste, which was very enlightening. From what I understand, he’s been working on a book about that very topic, which should be out in 2025.
Randy Mosher on the stage. Behind him, a slide that says “We’re much better than we think. Humans can scent-track like dogs! * Cloth with chocolate flavor * People on all fours * Swinging noses side-to-side * Got better with practice”.
Right after that was Jamie Bogner’s talk about the latest trends in American craft brewing of 2024. Jamie Bogner is the co-founder and editorial director of Craft Beer & Brewing magazine. Of course, a lot of these trends are around IPAs, but these points stood out:
Hazy DIPAs are less and less consumed on draught, but more in packaged formats.
Lower ABV versions are more popular.
Hazy IPAs are branching out into further sub-categories, such as beers driven by Citra/Mosaic or NZ hops.
Noble hops are increasingly getting integrated into IPAs
Flowable hop products (flavour extracts) help with reducing loss and increasing intensity.
Most award-winning West Coast “IPAs” are fermented with W-34/70 these days.
Crystal malt has seriously fallen out of fashion, as customers want very pale beers (at least when it comes to West Coast IPA).
Jamie Bogner on stage, on the screen there’s a slide with the headline “American Brewing Trends December 2024”
After that talk, we talked to some of the people at the company stands. As the next scheduled talks were all in Polish, we decided to visit the stained glass museum instead, then went to visit the Kraków Christmas market, and finished with a few beers and dinner.
The next day, Martyn Cornell did his presentation on the history of Porter. Martyn said that he hopes that his book on the subject matter should get published at some point in 2025, and after seeing his talk, I’m even more looking forward to it than before.
Marty Cornell on stage, with the title slide on the screen, saying “Porter, the beer for working class Londoners that conquered the world”
My talk was right after Martyn’s, in which I briefly talked about how Vienna Lager was created, why it went extinct in Austria during World War I, and how it used to be brewed during the 19th century, based on historic sources. I all went okay, except I ran out of time a bit. No matter how well I thought I had prepared the talk and timed it, I still overran because speaking at home apparently is an entirely different thing than speaking on a stage.
Right after my talk, I had to leave quickly as I had an appointment in the National Archives in Kraków to review a few documents that I had ordered. I have yet to fully review the material I’ve taken pictures of, but I’m sure you’ll see a blog post or two in the next few days or weeks about it.
After the visit to the National Archives, we had early dinner (I had my first pierogi at a proper sit-down restaurant) to return to the venue for the Kraft Roku 2024 award ceremony. Kraft Roku (lit. “Craft of the Year”) is Poland’s craft beer competition. Even though we understood very little (Google Translate in camera mode at least helped me understand the text on the big screen), it was still great fun, the Górniczo-Hutniczy beers we had also helped.
The audience at the Kraft Roku award ceremony
We stayed at the party afterwards as long as we could, but eventually needed to leave because we had to catch our train back the next morning.
Overall, Sympozjum Piwowarów was an excellent event. Lots of very good presentations (though I couldn’t exactly understand many of them), lots of interesting people to meet, and just an expression of how active and enthusiastic the Polish craft beer scene is. As a friend of mine noted, in Germany you either have a very academic-industrial approach to beer, or you have the home-brew scene, but nothing in between. Well, this symposium exactly filled that “in between” gap.
(full disclosure: both train journey and hotel were paid for by the Sympozjum Piwowarów organisers for me and my wife)
