When Jarek Szymanski opened Threshold Brewing and Blending in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Sara, he wasn’t brewing beer from his home country of Poland — yet. He was brewing the hazy IPAs that drew him into craft brewing when he moved to the area 20 years ago.
On visits back to Poland in recent years, the couple noticed a brewing renaissance. Jarek and Sara visited craft breweries and connected with Polish Hops, a company started in 2015 by a family that has grown hops in Poland for four generations. “Poland craft beer is going through a golden age,” Jarek Szymanski says.
Jarek, who oversees beer production at the Montavilla neighborhood–based brewery, says the taps at Threshold flow with about 75% modern IPAs, fruited beers, and other typical Pacific Northwest craft beer styles. The remainder tends to be a take on traditional and modern Polish beer styles, many of which are made with ingredients imported from Poland.
Threshold’s light Polish pilsner called Piwo (Polish for beer) features Lubelski hops and European malt. This delightful Polish pils is the type of crisp and light balanced pilsner that appeals to people who aren’t interested in the nuances of craft beer, but like a cold sip. Nice by itself, it is also very food friendly — it goes great with the tender, creamy pierogies that are served each Friday.
Grodzisk With Love, a gently smoked wheat ale with Polish Tomyski hops, originated in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, is one of the oldest beers in Europe. Often referred to as the champagne of beer for its lightness and effervescence, it has a subtle smokiness from carefully smoked oak. “The smoke is like when you go camping and smoke stays on your sweater. It’s gentle and delicate,” Szymanski says.
Svarog is a barrel aged Jopen-style ale that is commonly known as Polish barleywine. Threshold’s version, named for a powerful Slavic fire god, is inspired by the traditional high gravity style from Gdańsk dating back to the middle ages. Aged in Westward Whiskey barrels for 12 months gives it a velvety texture as well as anise and caramel flavors — along with a high ABV at 13%. This burgundy-colored brew harkens back to the botanical and medicinal beer brewed in medieval times: luscious, rich and a tad boozy. A Polish dark lager made with roasted buckwheat is in the works to add to Threshold’s winter seasonal beer line-up.
In addition to Polish style beer, Threshold offers a menu of Polish sandwiches called zapiekanka, or zapi. They are open-face sandwiches made on specialty bread from their neighbor Fressen Artisan Bakery, layered with a rich mushroom base and Polish Morski cheese with optional toppings like kielbasa slices and house-brined cucumbers finished with a zig-zag of their zesty tomato-based zapi sauce.
On Fridays Threshold hosts a pierogi pop-up featuring handmade pierogies from Marzena and Dion Baran of Taste of Old Poland, a company that has made these farmer’s cheese and potato-stuffed half moons of pasta for 30 years. Threshold also teamed up with Otto’s Sausage to create a custom kielbasa style sausage with a classic garlic and marjoram recipe that will soon be available at the taproom.
