Beer Styles

What beer style is Tyskie? It's a pale, bottom-fermented lager, sitting somewhere between German Helles and Bohemian Pilsner: golden yellow, moderately bitter, with a white head.

The style was adopted from Bohemia and Bavaria in the 19th century. In Polish, pale beer is called 'piwo jasne.' The difference from a German pilsner lies mainly in bitterness: the Polish lager holds back, while the German pilsner leans into the hops. Tyskie, from Tychy, is among the brands that have shaped the country's taste for decades.

One notable feature is the alcohol content. How much alcohol does a lager like this have? Depending on the brand, it usually falls between roughly four and a half and six percent ABV, as stated on the label. For the style profile here, the range given is for international pale lager; individual beers may vary.

The range given in the style profile follows the international pale lager guidelines from the BJCP competition handbook and is not a recipe — individual beers may fall outside it. The style is a full-strength bottom-fermented beer that pairs well with rich food and long evenings, much as it has been brewed in Tychy since the 19th century. It differs from a Märzen or Dunkel through its pale color and the absence of roasted notes. 'Original gravity' refers to the malt sugar in the wort before fermentation, measured in degrees Plato, and it determines how strong the finished beer will be.