Did you know that beer contains 95 percent water? Well neither did we but after a visit to the Lech Brewery in Poznan, Poland we feel somewhat like experts when it comes to beer. The tour takes you into the brewery and you learn a lot – even if they leave some secrets to themselves. Like just allowing us to take pictures at one place!
Table of Contents
Brewery Tours & Pub Lech Browary Wielkopolski
Producers of Lech, Tyskie, Żubr, and Redds. This place is a must for everyone that likes beer. I’m not a huge fan but Mini likes beer and I am always up for an adventure. The brewery has been here since 1980. Before it was in the old brewery (that has transformed into a shopping center and an art gallery). The tour of the brewery takes about an hour and they have tours in both Polish and English. Reservations are recommended but we had no problem getting in.
Poland is currently in the fourth place in the world in drinking beer per person and per year. First place is as always – the Czech Republic with 140 liters per person per year. In the second place, Germany with 110 liters. The third place goes to Austria and then we have Poland on around 100 liters per year. What’s funny with this statistics is that they count all the people living in the country – that includes babies and I don’t think that they consume that much beer.
Lech Brewery in Poznan offers guided tours
I know that a lot of people make their own beer. I think that it sounds like a lot of work and I got even more convinced after this tour. To make 100 liters of beer you need 18 kilos of Malt. But you only need 200 grams of Hopps for the same amount. And the beer travels from room to room and it’s boiling and cooling of and fermenting and being bottled and canned. It takes about three weeks for the beer to be made at this brewery.
Different time for different sorts of beer. Different time for the fermentation depending on what you are making. Our guide Joanna guided us around the whole area and showed us the different secrets of the brewery. They have a station for cleaning returned bottles and they fill up 1 000 bottles of beer per minute. When they are working at full capacity they can bottle 220 000 bottles per hour and 200 000 cans at the same time.
Our guide Joanna guided us around the whole area.
Drinking beer out of a bottle or can?
How many times have you heard that a beer tastes a lot better from a bottle than from a can? Well, we have heard it a lot of times. We’ve heard that the taste from the aluminum in the can spreads to the beer. Well here is a fact my friends. There is NO difference in taste. The cans are made so that the beer never touches the aluminum. However, sometimes there can be a smell of the aluminum and people can connect the smell to the taste.
I will be such a “know it all” the next time I hear someone talking about beer tasting different! And one other thing that was really interesting to find out. The Lech brewery have professional tasters. To become a beer taster you first need to have a high education, like a doctors degree or an engineer. After applying and getting accepted you need to go and learn how to become a perfect taster. It takes 18 months! Yes, 18 months to become a beer taster at the Lech Brewery. They work 45 minutes at a time and try out six different samples of beer. Unlike wine, beer needs to be swallowed to feel the taste. And one last thing… The people working at the brewery get 24 beers per month per person. That’s like a compensation for the workers!
Beer tasting or drinking at Lech Brewery
Even though they say that they offer beer tastings, I would rather call it a beer drinking. Tasting, according to me is when you try several different beers. At the Lech brewery, they offer you one beer after the tour and you have three to choose from. The weird thing here is that one of the beers you can choose from is a Czech beer called Urquell. It was the non-alcoholic alternative. The other two beers you have to choose from is the traditional Lech and one local beer called “Lech Pils”.
We asked for samples of all three beers instead of getting one each and they said it was ok so we got our tasting. We had high hopes for the local Lech Pils but ended up liking the regular Lech the most. And if you want more to drink than a beer you are more than welcome to buy more beer in the pub. Because the brewery has their own pub where you can meet up and have a drink.
They also have a media center where you can answer questions about beer and watch movies about beer (the movies are in Polish). And by the way – I ended up getting a certificate with the title “Lech beer master”. I answered some questions about beer and it turned out that I had all the questions right.
Information about the Lech Brewery
Address: ul. Szwajcarska 11, 61-285 Poznań, Poland.
Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday 10.00 – 20.00. But there are specific times when the tours of the brewery are, so make sure to catch a tour!
For reservations: Call + 48 61 66 77 460.
Website: http://zwiedzaniebrowaru.pl/en/index
0 Comments