Water & Soil

What water is Tyskie brewed with? According to the brewery, it comes from 13 wells located about four kilometers from the brewery. From there the water is piped to the brewhouses in Tychy.

The source is called Gronie. It lies on the slope of the Mikołowska hill, and the brewery named one of its beers, Tyskie Gronie, after it. A well field on a hillside is typical for a large brewery: the water filters through soil and rock before it is drawn, which keeps it clear and consistent.

The exact hardness of this water isn't documented here, and figures shouldn't be lifted from old tables. What's certain is the underlying principle. Pale lagers need water that won't let the hop bitterness turn harsh, and large breweries today treat their water regardless.

The land above isn't brewing country in any romantic sense. Upper Silesia is an industrial landscape of slag heaps, pitheads, and miners' settlements, interspersed with forests and ponds. The Princes of Pless owned extensive forests, and the castle in Pszczyna sits within a sprawling park. So the water from these wells comes from a region that is both industrial and woodland.

Climate plays less of a role in aging this beer than it does in Franconia or Bohemia. Aging today happens in chilled tanks, not rock cellars. Silesians know cold winters, but in Tychy the beer matures at a steady temperature, regardless of the season outside.