Żywiec Brewery (pronounced ; ) is one of the largest breweries and beer producers in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Founded in 1856 in the town of

Żywiec Żywiec () (german: Saybusch) is a town in southern Poland with 31,194 inhabitants (2019). Between 1975 and 1998, it was located within the Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship, but has since become part of the Silesian Voivodeship.It is the capital of Ż ...

, the brewery manufactures

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...

with a 5.6% alcohol volume. Grupa Żywiec S.A. consists of five main breweries: Żywiec Brewery,

Elbrewery The Elbląg Brewery is a major brewery in Elbląg, Poland. It belongs to the Żywiec Group. Brewery The history of the Elbing Brewing Tradition dates back to 1309, when Teutonic Master Siegfried von Leuchtwangen granted brewing privileges t ...

Leżajsk Leżajsk (; yi, ליזשענסק-Lizhensk; uk, Лежа́йськ, Lezháysʹk), officially the Free Royal City of Leżajsk ( pl, Wolne Królewskie Miasto Leżajsk), is a town in southeastern Poland with 13,871 inhabitants. It has been situated ...

Warka Brewery The Warka Brewery () is one of Poland's oldest breweries and belongs to the Żywiec Group. Żywiec Group has five main breweries: Żywiec Brewery, Elbrewery, Leżajsk Brewery, Cieszyn Brewery and Warka Brewery, and is majority owned by the ...

and Browar Namysłów. Currently, the Dutch

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

Group (Heineken International Beheer B.V.), with a 65% shareholding, has control over its major operations. Harbin B.V. has 35% shareholding. The brewery has the capacity of producing 5 million hls a year, making it the largest brewery in Grupa Żywiec.

History

The brewery started operating in 1856 in the town of

, which was then part of

Austrian Poland The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

. "Żywiec" entry in It was owned by the Habsburg Imperial Family until its confiscation by the post-WWII Communist government of Poland. At the beginning of the 1990s a court case was started by the descendants of the original owners, who sued the Polish government demanding $77 million Radio Free Europe report, 14 December 1999 compensation for the nationalisation and the use of the Habsburg family name and coat of arms for marketing purposes. The case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms in December 2005.http://miasta.gazeta.pl/katowice/1,35019,3054465.html Żywiec Brewery began distribution to other towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1913. In the 1990s, the brewery was acquired and modernized by

Heineken International Heineken N.V. () is a Dutch multinational brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. , Heineken owns over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries. It produces 348 international, regional, local and speciality be ...

Beers

The brewery produces several brands of beer, usually

s ranging from 5.6% to 9.5% abv, including ''Żywiec Jasne Pełne'' or ''Żywiec Beer'', a 5.6%

abv Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

pale lager, which has been brewed in the town of

, Poland for almost 150 years, and ''Żywiec Porter'', a dark

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

once brewed in Cieszyn Brewery. ''Żywiec Beer'' is sold by the 1pt. can, 1pt. bottles and by the

keg A keg is a small barrel. Wooden kegs made by a cooper were used to transport nails, gunpowder, and a variety of liquids. A keg is normally now constructed of stainless steel, although aluminium can be used if it is coated with plastic on th ...

. In the United States, it is sold by 12-pack and 6-pack bottles (330 ml / US 11.2 oz.) as well as 500ml cans and bottles. It is still brewed by means of traditional methods using all-natural ingredients and mountain spring water.

Logo

The Żywiec logo includes all of the most important historical symbols of the brewery and Poland itself. Żywiec Beer’s prominent front label displays a man and woman, who dance the

Krakowiak The Krakowiak or Cracovienne is a fast, syncopated Polish folk dance in duple time from the region of Kraków and Lesser Poland. The folk outfit worn for the dance has become the national costume of Poland, most notably, the rogatywka peaked hat ...

, a traditional dance of the area of Kraków in historic

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

. This dancing couple is dressed in classic Polish folk dancing clothes. Kraków’s

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is represented with the crown in the middle of the couple. The coat of arms is also represented by the three spruce trees displayed on the bottom of the label and the year 1856 on top underneath the crown. The name Żywiec is placed on the red sash across the middle of the label with the golden trimming. The Żywiec logo is the most famous mark and brand of beer in Poland and the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

of the entire brewery.

References

External links

Żywiec Official Website

Żywiec Group

Brewery Museum

at the Żywiec branch of Katowice State Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zywiec Brewery Zywiec Brewery Zywiec Brewery Zywiec Brewery

Brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

Heineken brands Buildings and structures in Żywiec 1856 establishments in Poland

History

Beers

Logo

See also

References

External links