Warka Strong

https://www.grupazywiec.pl/marki/warka/

Brewed by Browary Warka (Grupa Żywiec – Heineken)
Style: Strong Euro Lager
Warka, Poland

The Warka Brewery is one of Poland’s oldest breweries and belongs to the Żywiec Group. Żywiec Group itself is majority owned by the Dutch Heineken Group.

The brewery is in Warka, a small town in east-central Poland, a location with centuries-old brewing traditions. In 1478 Bolesław V, the Mazovian Prince, reserved to Warka the exclusive privilege to supply beer to his court.

The current plant was opened in 1975, under the Zakłady Piwowarskie w Warszawie (Warsaw Brewing Industries) and in 1999, Warka Brewery was purchased by Grupa Żywiec S.A. The brewery was modernized in 2004 and now has a production capacity between 200-350 million litres annually.

Review: 500ml bottle of Warka Strong Beer: 6.3% vol.

The ABV may also be 6.5% in some outlets. Comes in cans, bottles and on draught.

On the bottle there is a very distinctive portrait of General Pułaski, a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander, who was from Warka. He was driven into exile and ended up in North America to help in the American Revolutionary War where he distinguished himself throughout, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington. He has been called, together with his counterpart Michael Kovats de Fabriczy, “the father of the American cavalry.” as they created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion and reformed the American cavalry as a whole. A hero in both his native Poland, and in the USA. In any case, it looks pretty cool, and is a good look on the bottle.

On the pour I am getting a bloody good looking beer. In fact it looks magnificent, lovely sparkling amber colour with a decent sized head, which does die in time but the beer still keeps its inviting look. Not bad at all.

Smell is of the cheap lager variety, very faint, not a whole lot on the nose. Malted barley, caramel and yeast.

Onto the taste……..initially I am liking it. Yes, its ok……as expected it is strong, and with a lot of sweet malts and grainy flavours……a little tough on the palate, but just about manageable.

Deep taste, and it does take a while to get the hang of it…….it is a strong Euro lager after all, not my most favourite type of beers…….but after enough of these, I eventually adapted to the kick and enjoyed this over time.