The microbrewery phenomenon has been flooding our region at lightning speed lately, and we can find interesting beers in more and more places, whether in beer bars or in businesses. Small breweries are growing as far as the eye can see, and world-renowned brewers are finally finding their favorite foreign beers on the shelves.
According to him, Matej mostly comes up with the recipe himself. They offer their standard Bohumil lager and Uršuľa black beer, plus two seasonal ones. However, they also try to repeat them and not experiment too much, so that people who have become accustomed to their beer can regularly find their constant classics in the establishment.
Many of you know the beer from the Shenk brewery, and maybe you don't even know about it. It is the court beer in Bratislava legends such as Urban House or KC Dunaj.
And we really can't wait. The feeling of drinking Shenk beer straight from the tank is an experience. Every brewer and non-brewer will definitely confirm this after trying it.
Holt, great times are ahead for Slovak beer fans.
The word local is used in many contexts these days, whether in the world of beer, food, or fashion. But one microbrewery has taken the definition of the word very literally. Welcome to Shenk Brewery.
Going behind the scenes of beer production is an offer that cannot be refused, so when Shenk willingly opened its doors to us, we didn't hesitate for a minute. After all, having a beer straight from the tank where fresh beer matures is every brewer's dream.
At the entrance to Stará Tržnica, we are greeted by the head brewer Matej. A young guy who exudes enthusiasm for brewing beer from the very first moment. Matej guides us through the entire production process, telling us not only about the technology, but also about the brewery itself.
"We buy malt in various ways, but mainly from Slovakia. For example, Trnava has a long history of malting. We are a young brewery and we are still trying new things, including with malt. However, we are advocates of local products, why import something from half a world away when we have good and high-quality products right here."
"It's a family business from the ground up. Mom and dad came up with the idea, and my brother and I got started. My brother takes care of the management of the business and I take care of the operation of the brewery. We basically built the brewery ourselves with a few foremen. Our friend Juraj, who now works at the brewery, helped us from the beginning. There are two of us here for everything, sometimes my dad comes to help with maintenance and brings in malt, washes kegs."The brewery was originally supposed to be located in the bowels of OD Dunaj, but at the last minute the owners were forced to move the entire project underground in Stará Tržnica.
"It's fun, but it's also a lot of hard work. With beer it's a bit like with animals, you can't say, I'm going on vacation now, the beer will wait. It's a constant cycle that can't be stopped."
But how does a person become a brewer?
“There is currently no school for brewers in Slovakia, so we came up with a ‘crash course in genius’. The Association of Small Independent Breweries of Slovakia has developed a course during which you will learn the basics. It is more or less one semester of college on malting and brewing crammed into five weeks, plus practice in a brewery. After that, it is up to you to improve.”
The philosophy of the brewery in the center
When thinking of a brewery, many people think of tall chimneys in an industrial part of the city. However, the Shenk brewery couldn't be further away; the basement of Bratislava's Stará Tržnica can hardly be called anything other than the most central location in the capital. This is what makes Shenk the real nut. In short, a local beer for Bratislava's businesses in the city center. As head brewer Matej says: "From the beginning, the brewery's philosophy was to be in the city center. The Shenk brewery is in the center to serve the surrounding area. For now, we carry beer everywhere by keg and in portable tanks." "We would like to partially replace conventional beer in establishments. We would like to offer an alternative to mainstream beers in establishments in the city center. So that people can have something different, interesting in their pub. We will see how we manage after we open our taproom in Klub Dole. You have to have time for beer so that it doesn't have to be rushed. It has to have time to mature. That's why we brew almost every week."
Finally, Matej takes us one street further down the aforementioned Danube, where a new lounge area has been created above the Dole Club. They have just placed four 500-liter tanks identical to those in the brewery, so that everyone can enjoy the experience of drinking beer directly from the production tank.
"The taproom will be open soon, we are only solving a few technical issues and we will be ready for full operation. We are applying the principle of American breweries to Bratislava. A tap room, or rather a taproom a few meters from the brewery itself. In our case, we moved a piece of the brewery among the people," adds Matej.
