Video: Mariusz Zynel of Brewery Zaścianki, in Zaścianki, Poland speaks to the Beer Idiots about the challenges of starting a new brewery in Poland’s booming craft scene.
Browar Zaścianki is one of the newest members of the Polish wave of craft breweries. It is part of the around 200 new breweries that have emerged over the past 6 years in Poland according to estimates by the Warsaw Beer Festival.
Based in Zaścianki in north-eastern Poland, the brewery began commercial operations about a year ago, founded by Krzysztof Owsianiuk, Mariusz Zynel and Owsianiuk’s brother, Wojciech. The three had been running a company trading in computers and cash registers since 1990 and started listening to their friends stories about the growing interests in craft beers.
They investigated and Krzysztof began brewing at home December 2013. Now Krzysztof does the main work in the brewery, while the other two help out part time, while continuing the run the business.
They have a 15-hectolitre brewhouse, five tanks of 30 hectoliters each, a filtration tank, sludge tank, three fermentation tanks.
Zynel, in an interview with the Beer Idiots, says the switch from home brewing to a commercial operation has meant they have had to balance experimentation with selling beers that the public will buy so they can earn enough money to expand.
“Our biggest challenge is to do beer that we can be proud of and that sells well,” he says. Their immediate plan is to scale up by adding another 9 tanks and to expand their sales outside their local market.
They first found success with Kordzik, an American pale ale, and Nadziak, a Hefeweizen or wheat beer, to which they have added another 10 or so beers to their line up.
