With less than a month until Ireland play Croatia in Euro 2012, it's high time for travelling Irish football fans to get to grips with the logistics of the coming sojourn to Poland. Most importantly. thousands of us will be on tour in a new country with a somewhat foreign range of beer and spirits. In order to help you choose wisely at the bar and Polish off-license, we asked Desmond Houlihan proprietor of Nectar Beer and Wine, Ireland's leading online drink store, to explain what Irish football fans can expect next month
Poland - how do I put this is nicely – wouldn’t be at the top of the FIFA rankings of great brewing countries. They wouldn’t be up there with Belgium in terms of the world’s best beers, they’re more like a country playing 4-4-2 and grinding out results. A bit like ourselves, I suppose.
Poland does have a few lager-producing breweries. The main brands dominant in the market are Tyskie, Lech, Warka, Warka Strong and Zyweic. You’ll know all of these lagers from your local off-license. They are not dissimilar from the commercial, big beer brands that you’ll find in your local, like Heineken or Carlsberg. What makes them better is that they’re generally all more alcoholic, mostly over 5%. So party on, Poznan. Party on, Gdansk.
Tyskie is the pick of the bunch. It is brewed from crystal clear spring water, superior varieties of barley malt and hops which deliver an aroma assuring its excellent taste. Tyskie is the unquestioned leader of the Polish beer market. For years it has been winning recognition both in Poland and abroad. It has won the most prestigious brewing industry prizes more than once. What connoisseurs of Tyskie brand value most is the hoppy flavour, golden colour and thick, white head.
Ireland will play both Croatia and Italy in Poznan. If you’ve got downtime between watching football and drinking, why not take a brewery tour of the Lech Brewery while visiting the city? There’s a mental high speed bottling line, which operates at filling speeds of 17 bottles and 27 cans within a single second. That’s a lot of cheap drink.
Vodka, or wódka, is famous in Poland. The one which you should try while there is ?ubrówka Bison Grass Vodka. It’s the vodka with a slice of stalk of grass in the bottle. Its flavour is memorable, with vanilla, coconut, and almond notes. The grass, which is munched on by buffalo, gives it a hint of flavour and colour. This will be the classiest thing you can drink in Poland
Hopefully come June, we’ll be toasting the Boys In Green in Lech and Poznan with expensive vodka rather than drowning our sorrows in cheap lager.
Enjoy the craic and na zdorovie!
Desmond Houlihan
Nectar Beer and Wine
