Beer is an alcoholically fermented brew from germinated and sometimes additionally roasted barley or wheat (in case of wheaten beer), seasoned with hop at the end. It is not known how the recipe was created but it cannot be excluded that, like in case of many other discoveries, a coincidence helped. The oldest traces of brewing come from the 4th century before Christ from the country of Sumers.

Beer was brewed in Babylon, Egypt and the Roman Empire. In medieval Europe in which beer started to flourish it was brewed mainly by monks. After the reformation the privilege of producing beer was also given by the rulers to secular people.

Beer is one of the oldest beverages on the territories of Poland. It was admired and appreciated already by pagans (mainly Slavic people) and the baptism of Poland in 966 did not slow down the increase of this beverage’s popularity. The most known beer amateur in Europe was the Polish king Bolesław Chrobry, who served the refined golden beverage to his guests. Other famous beer amateurs were also, among others, the king Władysław Jagiełło and the big writer Mikołaj Rej. He left some advice and documents in which we can read many approving lines about beer.

Beer was created both from vetch and barley. The most refined beer was produced in monasteries and apart from them it was commonly brewed in households. The popularity of the beverage was constantly increasing: in every village there was at least one tavern, well equipped with the golden beverage. The production was the competence of a serf or - in other words - a rich farmer who had a right to brew beer from the most important person in the village - the mayor. Apart from the owners of the taverns also peasants produced beer. They were perfecting the recipe from one generation to another.

At the turn of the 13th and 14th century big cities received special privileges from the king, which included the right to produce beer.

In care of the best quality of alcoholic beverages and taking into account healthy competition, with time brewers started to unite themselves in guilds. In 1378 there was a conflict between the citizens of Gdańsk and the producers of beer in Warsaw. It was precisely in Gdańsk that it was possible to taste the best beer. It was commonly appreciated. In the 17th century the famous astronomer from Gdańsk, Jan Heweliusz, possessed his own breweries.

The ever better quality of the golden beverage and its good reputation led to some worries in the world of beer in Poland. Urban breweries started a duel with the owners of taverns the object of which was the control over the developing beer industry in rural areas. The conflict was solved thanks to the authority and intervention of aristocracy. Noble breweries were called „mielcuchy”. Most of the noble families possessed their own small factories producing the golden hop beverage. It was above all created to cover the needs of local taverns. Unfortunately the beer produced there wasn’t the best of all. Gossip has it that its taste wasn’t good. It was acid, in fact, and didn’t smell well. It was caused by poor sanitary conditions in production, which wasn’t based either on elementary principles of beer brewing nor even on a repetitive recipe.

This not particularly tasty beverage was designated for communities of a lower status. On the other hand, landlords drank a beverage that was carried from cities, especially from royal metropolises.

Thanks to the unlimited access to inexpensive components and to the very cheap serf workforce, beer prices started to lower. This affected a bigger accessibility of the beverage for all social groups.

Noble landlords practised a curious principle - „beer was expected to be acquired from the territories belonging to the properties of the hair”. More greedy representatives of the nobility used the so-called margin principle. It consisted in the fact that peasants had an obligation to acquire an indicated quantity of beer brewed by the nobility. The above mentioned allows to draw a conclusion that competition was not very welcome. Those, who wanted to offer their products on the territory of another landlord were severely punished both physically and financially. Punishment was given by special property defenders and defenders of the brewery business.

The 19th century was the time of a big brewery revolution. The brewing sector started an economic reform which transformed a casual craftwork into a developing industry. The development of beer production strongly influenced the technical progress and above all the development of a method of beer fermentation which required to cool the tuns. Small processing plants disappeared very quickly, leaving space to technically well equipped factories. It was then that the brewery Okocim in Brzesko was established among others.

The first 10 years of the 20th century were very important for the brewing industry. There were over 500 breweries in Poland by that time. The recipes were improved and beers of different flavours started to be produced. The progress of brewing had a strong influence on beer consumption - according to the then calculations one person was drinkning about 35 liters of beer annually.

The times of the 1st world war slowed down the progress. The brewing started to flourish again in the late 30’s when the industry achieved results similar to those from 1915. During the 2nd world war there were 36 breweries on the territory of the General Governorship.

After the war most of them still worked, but they were overtaken by the state. State companies tried to catch up with the Western modernisation with more or less success. New companies were established, e.g. the brewery in Sierpiec, but the political situation in the country badly influenced also the brewing sector. After 1989 the conditions changed radically and breweries had to adapt to the principles of market economy.

Beer is not a historical beverage. It is rather modern. The tradition of brewing beer in processing plants come from the times of pagans. On the other hand, however, we witness an uninterrupted process of improving the technology, developing the production and of perfecting. Thanks to these two features of the brewing sector in Poland the golden beverage sells very well attracting new amateurs as well as investors who see a high potential in the Polish brewing sector.