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Soft drinks from Poland, Lithuania

Podpiwek (Polish "underbeer")podpiwek

Podpiwek is a Polish low-alcohol drink brewed from cereal coffee (roasted barley) and chicory with hops and sugar, fermented by yeast in a closed vessel. It turns lightly fizzy and slightly sour, with a coffee-like, bitter note.

Fully documentedSoft drinks14 daysFamily: Kvass (bread kvass)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe sugar amount is from a laboratory study using a commercial base; home recipes vary.
Cereal coffee and ground chicory root with hopsThe drink contains no malt[staniszewski2025][smiechowska2018]
Sucrose500 g per 10 L of wortAs used in one laboratory study with a commercial podpiwek base[staniszewski2025]
YeastAdded as a starter culture in the laboratory study, which tested Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii and three non-Saccharomyces species[staniszewski2025]
Starterdefined-culture (yeast starter cultures in the laboratory study)

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: water moving into a piecepH 6.7

What changes: Hot water draws colour and flavour from cereal coffee, chicory and hops

Step 1 of 5
Make the wort from cereal coffee, chicory and hops
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.7
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Pichia kudriavzevii
Hanseniaspora uvarum

Output: sweet wort.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Podpiwek is a Polish low-alcohol drink brewed from cereal coffee (roasted barley) and chicory with hops and sugar, fermented by yeast in a closed vessel. It turns lightly fizzy and slightly sour, with a coffee-like, bitter note. Made in 5 steps over 14 days. The longest step, ferment closed, takes 14 days (Staniszewski A 2025). Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii and Pichia kudriavzevii, Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Hanseniaspora uvarum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14 daysReported[staniszewski2025]Ferment closed
AciditypH 6.7Measured[staniszewski2025]Make the wort from cereal coffee, chicory and hops

What makes this one different

Unlike kvass, which is brewed from rye bread or malt, podpiwek is made from cereal coffee and chicory with hops and contains no malt. Some products sold as podpiwek today are diluted, carbonated malt concentrates that are not fermented at all.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Regional podpiwek (kujawski, warmiński, lubuski, and augustowski made with honey)Regional brands, one of them made with honey (Polish Wikipedia).

Safety

In the laboratory study the flasks went to the fridge after 14 days, yet Saccharomyces yeast kept fermenting slowly there. Ethanol reached 9.69 g/L with S. cerevisiae and 24.27 g/L with S. boulardii by day 30, so a drink meant to be low- or non-alcoholic can gain alcohol in storage when live yeast is left in it.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Podpiwek is considered traditional to Poland and Lithuania, perhaps from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; commercial production began in the mid-19th century. It stayed popular until the end of the 1980s as an alternative to scarce bottled soft drinks.

  1. [staniszewski2025] Staniszewski A., Staniszewska P., Komoń-Janczara E., Kordowska-Wiater M. 2025, Probiotic yeast and how to use them, combining traditions and new waves in fermented beverages, Foods 14(16):2921paper
  2. [smiechowska2018] Śmiechowska M., Jakubowski M., Dmowski P. 2018, Nowe trendy na rynku niskoalkoholowych napojów fermentowanych, Kosmos 67paper
  3. [s1] Wikipedia (en, pl), Podpiwek (outline only)wiki