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{{data|10 June 2019}}
There were times when people told legends of saints and blesseds, of their great piety and their alleged miracles, to give people an example of how to heroically keep one’s faith and stay in God’s grace. Nowadays, some of these stories are being told to help sell beer. We’ve already talked about the legend of "``[[Saint Piva of Warka]]". Today, on the 416th anniversary (give or take a few days) of his death, we’re going to take a look at a certain Błażej Pęcherek (pronounced: {{pron|bWah|zhey}} {{pron|pen|Heh|rek}}), who lived in a region of what is now west-central Poland, known as Greater Poland. Better known as Father Bernard of Wąbrzeźno (pronounced: {{pron|vawm|bzhezh|naw|link=no}}), he is famous for his legendary role in the creation of Grodziskie beer.
[[File:Piwo z Grodziska 2.jpg|thumb|upright|''Piwo z Grodziska'', or Beer from Grodzisk]]
== The Life of Bernard ==
[[File:Bernard z Wąbrzeźna.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Fr. Bernard of Wąbrzeźno (1575–1603)]]
Let’s begin with Bernard, referred to in some sources as "``the Blessed Bernard" – even though his beatification process has never come to conclusion, so at best he gets to be styled "``the Servant of God". Little is known about his life apart from what we can find in hagiographic sources, whose main aim is to present a case (so far, unsuccessfully) for his beatification. If we prune all the flattery about his "``holiness which shines a light so bright as to compel all to worship and adore him"<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = Chwaliszewski
| imię = Marcin
| rok = 1881
| strony = II
}}</ref> and the long list of miracles ascribed to him "``with which he conquered even the eyes and minds of the enemies of monastic life",<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 40</ref> we’ll be left with a biography no longer than a few sentences.
Błażej Pęcherek was born in 1575 as one of eight children of Paweł Pęcherek, a mayor of Wąbrzeźno (a town also known by the German name, Frideck), and his wife, Dorota.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 3–4</ref> When Błażej was 11, his parents sent him to a Jesuit school in Poznań, the major city of Greater Poland.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 6</ref> There he became acquainted with some Benedictine monks and he liked their way of life so much that he joined their monastic community just after graduating at the age of 24.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 15</ref> A year later, in 1600, he concluded his novitiate and took his vows as Brother Bernard.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 20</ref> He was ordained priest soon afterwards, thus changing from a "``Brother" into a "``Father".<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 22–23</ref> Only two years after joining the monastery, Father Bernard became a master of novices, responsible for training new monks.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 25–26</ref> This promising monastic career was cut short not long after that, on 2 June 1603, when, after a brief illness, Father Bernard died at the age of 28 in the odour of holiness.<ref>''Ibid.'', s. 33</ref>
It turns out, then, that even if the Grodzisk beer had the miraculous healing properties it’s been claimed to have, then our Bernard must have never drunk it – otherwise, he would have lived a little longer. So what, if anything, did the Benedictine monk have to do with the beer? And what’s so special about the beer brewed in Grodzisk anyway?
Yes, it’s ''that'' Michael Jackson, the famous connoisseur of beer and whisky (just making sure it’s clear, because I’ve heard there was some other Michael Jackson too). Anyway, coming back to Grodziskie, it’s a top-fermented beer that is brewed from oak-smoked wheat malt. You can see it’s an old style; in the past all malt was made in open-fire kilns, so practically all malt was smoked. Once brewed, the beer is clarified with isinglass, or a kind of glue made from fish swim bladders (another time-honoured practice), then bottled and allowed to referment in bottles (just like Champagne), which gives it a distinctively large head of foam when poured.
The name comes from the town of Grodzisk (or Grätz in German), where it was brewed from as early as the 17th century until 1993. That year, during a period of rapid privatization and consolidation of Poland’s beer market (it had been only four years since the fall of Communism), the last active brewery in Grodzisk was acquired and promptly shut down by the larger brewing company, Lech Browary Wielkopolski (or "``Lech Breweries of Greater Poland"), which now belongs to Kompania Piwowarska ("``Beer-Brewing Company"), which in turn has been owned by SAB Miller, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Asahi. And this is how Grodziskie became a historical beer style.
== Grodziskie Resurrected ==
[[File:Studnia Bł. Bernarda w Grodzisku Wlkp..JPG|thumb|upright|An Art-Nouveau water pump which has replaced the town well of Grodzisk]]
The United States, a country which until not so long ago was known for its distinctively tasteless beers, also happens to be the home of the Beer Revolution. It was the American beer drinkers who first said "``enough" to the adjunct-infused pale lagers mass-produced by multinational breweries and began brewing their own beers – first at homes or in garages and then increasingly in brewpubs and craft breweries. The number of U.S. breweries skyrocketed in the 1990s and again in the 2010s; by 2015, the 1873 record of 4,131 breweries, had been broken.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = VinePair
| rozdział = Mapping The American Brewing Renaissance
So let’s return to Father Bernard and how he supposedly saved Grodzisk from an epidemic that befell the town. This is how it happened according to his hagiographer, Father Marcin Chwaliszewski:
[[File:Grodziskie reklama.JPG|thumb|upright|"``Only Grodziskie beer!" <br />An advertisement from the 1930s.]]
{{ Cytat
| In the year 1620, remembered for the Polish defeat at Țuțora and other great calamities, including the pestilence which ravaged the entire nation, when this terrible disease betided the town of Grodzisk in the Diocese of Poznań and when its inhabitants {{...}} for 40 days joined in processions and public prayers, they saw a person surrounded by a bright light, rising above the town in heavenly clouds, holding a cross and clad in Benedictine garb. Enlightened by Divine instinct and by Father Andrzej Karsznicki, who had known Bernard well since their school years, they understood that it was a sign from God that the entire town should piously visit the tomb of this Venerable Servant of God in the Lubiń monastery. {{...}} Every year, the thankful town of Grodzisk made a voluntary offering of a keg of beer to the Lubiń monastery and a candle for Bernard's tomb. These offerings continued until the monastery's dissolution in 1835.
In any case, the legend thus pieced together served, on the one hand, to justify the very important (from the monks’ point of view) custom of giving the monastery a keg of beer every year and, on the other hand, it reinforced Grodziskie’s reputation as a beer to cure all ills. In the past, beer (in general) was indeed safer to drink than water – firstly, because the process of brewing required good-quality boiled water and, secondly, the alcohol and the hops had additional antiseptic properties. But even with all this in mind, Grodziskie beer stood out as a beer style that could be even used as medicine.
[[File:Grodziskie-reklama 3.JPG|thumb|left|upright|"``Since over 400 years ago, healthful Grodziskie beer!" <br />An advertisement from the 1930s.]]
{{ Cytat
| Grodziskie grew in fame throughout Greater Poland to the point that any nobleman who had no Grodziskie beer in store was considered either a pauper or a miser. It owed much of its esteem to doctors who valued it as highly as mineral waters. It is a light and tasty beer which doesn't spin your head around; doctors, who in all kinds of ailments forbid you to take any other liquors, allow you to drink Grodziskie and indeed prescribe it in some cases.
}}</ref>
The belief in Grodziskie’s health-promoting properties flourished well into the 20th century, when its advertisements stressed that "``Grodziskie beer is often prescribed by physicians to convalescents and those suffering from stomachache and even diabetes."<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = TVN24
| rozdział = Stare reklamy piwa grodziskiego
| adres rozdziału = https://www.tvn24.pl/zdjecia/stare-reklamy-piwa-grodziskiego,33725,lista.html
| rok = 2013
}}</ref> What made it an unlikely medicine was that it was also tasty and refreshing. According to an 18th-century source, in Poznań the beer was drunk "``more for its taste than out of need".<ref>W. Szmelich, ''op. cit.'', p. 8</ref>
One can say that Grodziskie, formerly brewed in only a single town and then – for some time – nowhere, is now an international style (even if still a rather niche one). In 2015, this style’s production finally returned to a newly opened brewery in Grodzisk itself, where it is now brewed under the [http://browargrodzisk.com/nasze-piwa/ "``Piwo z Grodziska"] ("``Beer from Grodzisk") brand. Like in the past, it is still light-coloured, low-alcohol, effervescent, refreshing and (perhaps) healthy.
''Na zdrowie!''