18 Dec Beer at a Friend’s Place
Beer at a Friend’s Place
They couldn’t find a place to drink good beer, so they decided to create their own brewery. We went to meet one of the first breweries to open in the south-eastern Poland: Browar Rzemieślniczy ZZ. It is boom time for craft beer.
Click in the arrows to see the photo gallery
Noble Ambience
By creating the Browar Rzemieslniczy ZZ brewery, Piotr and Krzysztof wanted to uphold the noble tradition of brewing beer. That’s why they bought an old manor house style school, which had the perfect environment for their brewery concept. The red bricks, tile stoves, and wood trim make this place stand out.
Crafting a passion
In the world of brewers, no one is particularly surprised with Piotr Zajdl and Krzysztof Ziobro’s history. After all, most people making craft beer in Poland nowadays are passionate about what they do, those who started out in the comfort of their own home, to later make their debut on a wider scale. It was no different in this case, although Piotr and Krzysztof preferred drinking beer to brewing it at home. Their favourite place was the CK Browar brewery in Cracow, where they would go from their home town – Krosno – several times a month. When they became tired of travelling, they decided to take a chance and open a similar place in their region, where you could only dream of having local beer.
A taste of Nature
The second thing that makes the brewery so unique is its location. Only 13 km from Krosno, in the immediate vicinity of the Wisłok valley and on the Czarnorzeki-Strzyżów Landscape Park border. The green surroundings have a direct impact on production, which, for ecological reasons, is limited to the necessary minimum.
Many choices for each season
Every year in Wojkówka, 20 types of beer are produced, but you can taste only six of them per day. In the Autumn, you’ll always find dark beer on the menu and, in the Summer, as the temperature outside increases, you can cool down while having lighter, upper-fermented beer.
Less is better
Machine operation is also restricted to a minimum in the brewery. As is customary for craft production, in Wojkówka almost everything is done manually. Initially, when 800 litres of beer were brewed, the owners did everything alone. Now, as production has increased fivefold, they have three employees to help them out.
The best way to end a Workday
Piotr and Krzysztof have no doubt that their beer tastes best in the brewery, served in special thick-bottomed pint glasses imported from the Czech Republic. The owners dream about their brewery becoming similar to a Czech one, where everyone stops off on their way home from work. Well, given that the interest in local beer has grown in recent years, chances are big. Having competition also works in their favour.
