Type Beer Alcohol by volume 5.2 % Website www.lech.pl | Country of origin Poland Style Pale lager | |
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Lech Browary Wielkopolski ([ˈlɛɣ brɔˌvarɨ vjɛlkɔˈpɔlskʲi]; English: Lech Breweries of Greater Poland) is a big industrial brewery in Poznań, with a production capacity of 7.5 million hl. The plant is owned by Kompania Piwowarska SA.
History
The modern brewing plant in Poznań was built between 1975-1980. In 1984 a malthouse was added. By 1992, along with other brewers, it was part of Wielkopolskie Zakłady Piwowarsko-Słodownicze SA, but after 1992 it became the company's main production facility - Lech Browary SA. In 1993, the ministry has decided to privatize the ownership of the brewery. As a result of the tender a majority shareholder in the company was Euro Agro Centrum Poznań, owned by entrepreneur Jan Kulczyk.
In 1996, the brewery was taken over by South African Breweries, which in the same year, together with Jan Kulczyk, purchased the Tyskie Brewery. Three years later, the two breweries were combined to form Kompania Piwowarska.
On March 11, 2007, at the newly opened section of the brewery, the world's biggest beer mug was erected and filled with Lech Pils beer, setting a Guinness world record for the largest number of people drinking from one mug, which included 4250 liters of beer. The establishment of the record was attended by 10,625 people.
On July 31, 2010, an advertisement containing words "Zimny Lech" (Cold Lech) was placed near Wawel. The controversy was that in Polish, "zimny Lech" means both cold Lech (beer), as well as cold (corpse of) Lech (Kaczyński), the former president of Poland, whose corpse was buried in Wawel on April 18, 2010. On August 2, 2010, it was announced that that advertisement was going to be removed from near Wawel, as well as from other cities.