Bear Necessities

Vintage cars, jazz concerts, camping under the stars, wild cuisine - that's how beer is done in Poland's Bieszczady mountains By Brendan Melck Agnieszka Łopata and Andrzej Czech have created a unique cultural Center in the Bieszczady Mountains, including a brewery producing distinctive craft beers. Centrum Ursa Maior – loosely translated as the Great Bear Center (as in the constellation) – was opened in December 2013, in the village of Uherce Mineralne in the Bieszczady mountain region of the Podkarpackie voivodship in Poland’s far south-east. The center combines at least two important and growing cultural and economic trends in Poland today – first, eco-tourism, for which its unspoiled surroundings are perfect, and second, craft beers brewed using traditional methods and natural and locally-sourced ingredients. A blend of beer and local culture The center features a brewery, which produces a range of beers, including ales, wheat beers and the stronger, Belgian trappist-style beers. Agnieszka Łopata is in charge of brewing, as well as of the entire Ursa Maior operation. She is an environmental engineer by trade, who has been producing beer for a number of years already. Agnieszka also has her own blog promoting beer as an accompaniment to food, kuchniapiwowarkiagi.pl. Her right-hand man in the project, and deputy CEO of Ursa Maior is Andrzej Czech, who is behind Centrum Ursa Maior’s ecological philosophy. Having already run an ecological, energy self-sufficent guesthouse in the Bieszczady region for some years, Czech, a Bieszczady native, is also passionate about the regional culture, and this has driven the opening of an auction house for local art at the Center. It also houses a shop with regional products and an exhibition hall. The Center offers the opportunity for larger or smaller groups to visit the brewery, and taste a selection of beers, with or without a food accompaniment. “We thought it was important to put the cultural and social function of beer at the heart of the project – not treating beer simply as a way of consuming alcohol. Beer is a fantastic drink, in terms of taste, nutrition and health benefits when it’s made from natural ingredients using traditional methods. We also wanted to create a unique meeting place, to help revive the local community, and contribute to the local economy by creating jobs and selling local products,” said Czech. [negative]People are seeking new tastes and increasingly value local products, and I think this trend will not only continue but also intensify[/negative] Lady in charge Beer drinking, is likely to be associated with groups of rowdy men – so it is all the more fitting that at Centrum Ursa Maior, it is a woman who is in charge of making the beer. Czech explained how Łopata’s hobby became a serious professional occupation. “Since Agnieszka became interested in homebrewing, she’s won many awards. In 2012, she won the award for best homebrewer in Poland. We have decided to put to use her undoubted talent in this area at a professional level and on a wider scale,” he said. A diverse range Ursa Maior’s beer is presented in bottles – as befits a serious beer producer – which feature distinctive labels. The beer is unpasteurised, unfiltered, and made with water from the local source. “Up to now, we have created 16 different types of beer,” explained Andrzej Czech. “They are all selling at about the same rate, but the ones which are selling faster are Śnieg na Beniowej (an American golden ale style beer), Royzbawiony (a wheat beer), Megaloman (an India Pale Ale style beer) and Deszcz w Cisnej (a ‘smoked’ ale style beer).” As well as having the opportunity to sample the beers as part of brewery tours, customers can buy them in the shop, or order them online; they are also available in a number of pubs and retail outlets around the country. [caption id="attachment_86271" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image: Ursa Maior[/caption] Craft beer trend set to continue A look around most Polish cities will tell you how significant the shift in taste towards craft beers has been in recent times. Described variously as “piwa niszowe” (niche beers) and “piwa regionalne” (regional beers), new shops entirely dedicated to these beers have sprung up, and they occupy an increasing amount of shelf space in established outlets. While in the 1990s and 2000s news about breweries closing down seemed to dominate, in recent years, the trend has been reversed and, according to Rzeczpospolita daily, Poland now boasts the largest number of new breweries in 20 years – and this number is only going to increase. According to a press release from the Treasury Ministry, while beer sales fell overall by 2 percent year-on-year in 2013, “niche” and regional beers (including beers made by larger producers) maintained their double-digit year-on-year sales growth. Of course, the scale and method of production, as well as the ingredients used, means that the price of craft beer is higher than mass-produced beer. Nonetheless, Czech believes that the beer revolution in Poland will carry on. “We obviously don’t intend to compete with mass-produced beers in terms of price, aiming instead to deliver quality to clients who value natural products which are made in an environmentally-friendly way. People are seeking new tastes and increasingly value local products, and I think this trend will not only continue, but also intensify.” Accent on the local and ethical The Ursa Maior approach to beer is much the same as its approach to other aspects of the Center’s activities. As well as giving local artists a platform to pres present and sell their works, the Center’s shop also upholds an overall local focus and ethical values. “Even though the Center has only been open for a short time, visitors have commented on its unique design and function. You won’t see here any mass-produced plastic souvenirs which have flooded into Poland, pretending to be folk art,” said Czech. All of this is to be found in the unspoiled Bieszczady region, the natural beauty of which will become more of a rarity in Europe. We’ll drink (an unpasteurised and unfiltered beer) to that.