Inne Beczki Free IPA

Inne Beczki are a Warsaw-based Polish brewer, founded by friends Janek and Marcin. Their name translates to English as ‘Other Barrels’, and the pair originally opened and ran one of the smallest bars in the world, Spotkanie ze Szpiegiem (‘Meeting with the Spy’ in English), with an area of just 23 square metres. In 2016 the brewer used the crowdfunding platform Beesfund to raise PLN 400,000 (~£74,000) to start up their own brewery. It only took 11 days and around 700 small investors to reach their target. With this investment the brewer was able to grow both their output and sales. This growth did not go unnoticed, and enticed an angel investor to inject yet more capital into the business, enabling Inne Beczki to open the Browar Błonie brewing facility in 2018.

The brewery now produces over 1 million litres of craft beer every year, spread over a number of brands and contract brews. As well as Inne Beczki-branded beers, lines include Kampinoskie – inspired by the nearby Kampinos Forest and national park, and Polski Folklor – beers inspired by Polish folklore and tales.

Inne Beczki have a few non-alcoholic beers under their belt, but as far as I can see, Free IPA is their original such offering. Coming in a huge (500ml) and colourful bottle, it looks fresh and inviting, and far away from the bland blue branding that alcohol-free beers from the macro brewers seem to be tarred with. Let’s get the top off this Polish giant and see what’s inside.

Pouring the beer out from the bottle we get a slightly cloudy straw coloured liquid. Around a finger of soapy dense head is produced as the beer settles in the glass, and this foam is fairly long lasting, surviving at least a few good draws. On the nose the beer is very fruity, with citrus, tropical and stone fruit aromas all vying for attention, with maybe a touch of resinous pine cutting through it all.

The fruit remains in the taste as we take a mouthful, though we have tropical mango as the clear forerunner. Tropical and citrus fruits are still discernible, but the resinous pine is on a firmer footing, giving a pleasing background bitterness and earthiness to the drink. It’s a crisp beer, drier than many similar IPAs. The mouthfeel is smooth with a lower carbonation level and light to medium body. We get a short bitter finish to the drink.

Inne Beczki Free IPA is lovely fruity but dry pale ale, following in the footsteps of other Polish craft brewers. The 500ml bottle gives you those extra few mouthfuls that an otherwise 330ml serving would deprive you of, without immediately having to open another one. Those crowdfunding investors can be very proud of what their cash has produced.

Buy Inne Beczki Free IPA

I’m yet to see anything from Inne Beczki out in the wild, but if you spot a bottle at your local I suggest you give it a try. The best place to buy Free IPA and the brewer’s other beers is online – try the following stores:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the bottle)
ABV	<0.5%
Energy	22 kcal
Fat	<0.1g
Carbohydrates	4.9g
Sugar	2.3g
Protein	<0.5g
Ingredients
Water, Barley Malt, Hops, Yeast
Additional Information
Country of Production	Poland
Brewer	Inne Beczki – http://www.innebeczki.pl/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No