Wrocław Beer Explorations

The tail end of 2018 found me in the south-west of Poland for a couple of days in the pleasant city of Wrocław.  Situated on the River Oder, this is the fourth largest city in the country.  Here we had to brave some pretty persistent rain and dark skies as we explored the sights of the historical centre. 

Grey skies over Wrocław.  Looking down over the Rynek and Christmas Market from the tower of St Elizabeth's Church

So in this kind of weather...straight to the pub!
Located on the corner of the large market square is Browar Złoty Pies (Wita Stwosza 1-2, website).  This translates as the Golden Dog Brewery and is on the first floor of a spectacular building. It's a bright and modern L-shaped room with the brewing equipment proudly on display adjacent to the bar.  In homage to their name all beers are canine orientated, which is how I ended up sat with a 'Setter Stout'. We also sampled a plate of potato pancakes to fill us up nicely for the evening ahead. This is a thoroughly pleasant brewpub, right in the middle of the city, bright, comfortable, welcoming and well worth a visit.

Złoty Pies Micro Brewery, Wrocław

Navigating the Christmas Market to get around to the other side of the square, there is a second brew-pub to visit...
MiniBrowar Spiz (ul. Rynek 9; website - Look out! Trad Polish folk music assault included in website experience).
Stairs lead down to the subterranean restaurant and beer hall in this historic building.  With cellar-like corridors and rooms; displays of glasses and drinking mugs, brewery signs on the wall and the brewing coppers next to the bar, this is reminiscent of a multitude of middle-European beer halls.
But around the walls were five flat-screen TVs showing music videos which seemed somewhat out of place in the surroundings.
The bar was busy with just a couple of tables left, but what I liked here was that it was self-service, so none of the palaver of hoping that a waiter spots you in the corner and remembering to pay before you leave.
They offered a pretty wide range of brews although we only tried the one, a 5.3% dunkel which was mediocre at best.

MiniBrowar Spiz, Wrocław

The next day we undertook some sightseeing in the rain.  We visited the Racławice Panorama, which the Poles get very patriotic about, climbed the 300 steps of the tower at St Elizabeth's Church and explored the University.  Because, y'know, we've not got enough of those at home in Oxford. (Incidentally twinned with Wrocław).

For a bite to eat we called in to Miṥ milk bar for some traditional cuisine at incredibly good value prices.  Under 12 złoty for 2 bowls of soup and 2 plates of kopytka potato dumplings - that's less than £2.50 and less than fools like me were paying for a glass of beer in trendy new beer bars.
First you need to decipher the menu though...

Intimidating menu.

As daylight was fading at a frightfully early hour we made a plan to head a short way out the city centre to Browar Stu Mostów Taproom (Jana Długosza 2, website).
To get here we caught Tram 6 riding it for around 15 minutes until we crossed Warszawski Bridge.  From here it was a short trek on foot to the brewery.  Opened in 2014, Stu Mostów have gained a reputation for good beers.  You know they must be doing something right when they're collaborating on beers with notable European breweries such as De Molen, HaandBryggeriat and Northern Monk.
The bar is situated on a mezzanine level with a great view over the brewing kit.  Most of the tables were reserved for later in the evening, so it's obviously a popular place.  The beer menu was fantastic, with most styles covered by either their own brews or guests.  
I stuck to the quite pedestrian Stu Mostow 'Salamandar AIPA', before diverting from Polish brewers to try one of their guest beers 'Hot Smokey Sanchez' by Madrid's La Quince Brewery.
Smoked Jalapeno chilli beer?  Not a chance I was going to miss that!

Looking down at the brewing equipment from the bar, Browar Stu Mostow

I hadn't realised beforehand that Wrocław had so many great beer bars and has become a quality destination for the beard-stroking ale-aficionado.
I couldn't visit them all, but below is a rundown of the drinking establishments that we did get to:

My beer bar selection in Wrocław

Kontynuacja (ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich 17, Facebook Page)

Kontynuacja, Wrockław

There's a branch of this craft beer bar in Katowice as well, although I felt the Wrocław location has a bit more character to it, in a more traditional room with vaulted ceilings.  Beers are displayed on a blackboard at the end of the bar, with around 15 available from Polish micros and a couple of international offerings.  There are a lot of small breweries popped up in Poland in the past few years and the choice overwhelmed me a bit on arrival - I plumped for a black IPA - 'Galaktyka Piwnix' by Browar Podgórz.  This was absolutely fine, but a dull pick in comparison to Mrs PropUpTheBar's Cocoa and Peppermint Double Milk Stout, which was served on one of the two hand pumps at the bar.
Beer jealousy.

AleBrowar Wrockław (Pawła Włodkowica 27, website)
AleBrowar were set up in 2012 and are based up in Lȩbork in the north of the country, close to Gdańsk.  They run two bars, one in Gydnia and this one in Wrocław.  And it is predictably cool and an essential stop on any crawl through the cities beer hot-spots.
This has a light and airy cafe/bar feel to it.  Beers are listed on colourful boards at the back of the bar and the selection on this visit had something to suit most tastes.
I went for strong & hoppy with 'Kiss the Beast' - an 8.5% DIPA followed by a palate- cleansing 'Apricot New Wave Gose'.

Bar at AleBrowar, Wrocław

Szynkarnia (Ṡwiętego Antoniego 15, website)
Just along the road from AleBrowar we chose this place on the basis of being able to get a casual bite to eat, whilst still having the pick of the beers.  It has a deli counter at the front, with the bar just around the corner and seating on three levels.  With a busy crowd on a Saturday evening, we were led to a small table on the mezzanine with a birds-eye view of proceedings.  We filled the table with rustic potato wedges and local flat-breads, washed down with a 'Holiday IPA' from Langier Bir.  

4Hops (ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich 46)
Definitely a contender for the best of the beer bars that we visited, this place had lots of cool design touches, a good crowd, a bit of street-art and a nifty-looking racing bike hanging from the ceiling next to our table.

Hanging bike at 4Hops - picture nabbed from their Instagram page

We faced another spectacular beer-list to make selections from.  I was ill-advisedly veering towards the strong-ABV stuff at this point in the evening and picked out 'Łokietek' by Browar Kazimierz a strong DIPA weighing in at 8%.  Then returned to the bar for something even more lethal in the shape of 'Echo' a 9.3% imperial Baltic porter by Nepomucen which fortunately was available in sensible 0.1litre measures.  These were pretty expensive beers, but nothing like the prices you'd face for similar offerings in a UK craft bar.

Marynko Pivo I Apertivo (Kazimierza Wielkiego 39)
This was the last of the places that we visited on our trip to the city and, if I'm being perfectly honest, one place and one beer too many for a feeble lightweight like me on a long day out.
To get to the bar you need to pass through a building from the street and you'll find Marynko Pivo in the backyard.  The courtyard would surely be a nice spot in warm weather, but on this chilly night it was just home to a pizza van, offering up food for the peckish.  Inside the bar stretches through a couple of characterful dimly-lit rooms with vaulted ceilings and exposed brickwork.
Yet again, a great selection of beers.  I seemed to remember someone recommending Pracownia Piwa as one of the countries best breweries, so I picked their 'Crack', a sensible strength 'American' stout.

And that brings to an end my boozy explorations and recommendations for Wrocław.  It's a great place, very worthy of a city-break and brilliant for eating and drinking.
For up-to-date info check out the invaluable In Your Pocket guide and enjoy!