Fun forward

Similarly, Filip’s background in graphic design means the brewery is constantly collaborating with artists and designers, and boasts beautifully illustrated core range labels. Each beer is named after a different person or profession — the teacher, the miner, the lumberjack, even the drug dealer numbers among them. Jakub mentions that The Nurse used to have much bigger breasts, but the brewery lost a contract with Lidl after the Polish nurses association filed a complaint.

Hard lessons aside, “we put a little sticker on all of our graphics which indicates that we use no AI” says Jakub proudly. “All of our designs are man made by hand. There’s a very big trend in Poland, like all over Europe, of using AI to prepare the labels. Of course, we live in 2025, we have access to technology and we should use it, but not for this. AI can kill creativity.” 

Brokreacja also operates an ongoing campaign called ‘Call to Create’, whereby artists can submit their designs to the brewery, and if Filip and the design team like it, they’ll use it as artwork for their Call to Create range, a delicious gallery for artistic talent in Poland. I ask through cracks in my fingers whether the artists are paid. “Of course they’re paid!” says Jakub. “Every artist should be paid for their time, same as the homebrewers who win our competitions; they get cash for the recipe we help them to scale. This is not a situation where we get something for free and tell the creator that they can put it on their CV.” I breathe a sigh of relief. 

It’s no surprise, with Brokreacja being so engaged and openhearted, that the brewery has the support of a committed community. Jakub says that, at the time of our conversation, the team is a matter of weeks away from starting work on the construction of a second facility, right behind the first — a feat which would not be possible without the support of drinkers. However, challenges also lie ahead, which will require an even closer connection between the brewery and its supporters; the rollout of an EU-wide recycling programme.

“It's difficult because we need to freeze a lot of money,” says Jakub. “When we send beer to a shop or wholesaler, we need to pay 10-20c for every glass and every can that will be sent to market, and when our customers bring them back to the shop and put them in the special machine we get the money back. If our customers decide to not put the package in the machine, and the total amount of packaging returned is under 27% of what we put into the market, we have to pay extra.”

It’s easy to see both how this could be a major setback for breweries, but also how having open lines of communication with engaged drinkers will see the best outcome both for Brokreacja and the environment. Beer has already weathered significant mindset shifts among Polish drinkers over the last several generations, so Jakub just sees this new deposit return scheme as another challenge the brewery will learn to navigate. 

He notes that when most of the world thinks about drinking in Poland, their mind jumps to vodka, but this is actually a drink reserved for special occasions. Beer is a much more accessible, common, midweek drink. “But also, in Poland, after the Second War we had almost 80 years of the Soviets putting in our mouths vodka, vodka, vodka”, says Jakub. “Beer became the drink for construction workers and bums. For example, when my grandmother heard about my first job in the brewery, 12 years ago, she said, ‘ugh, only the bums drink beer! Wine and vodka are for the higher class of people.’”

Jakub acknowledges that thankfully, people don’t think that way any more, though it remains a challenge to produce beer in Poland, on account of strict regulations. Though firmly located within Europe’s top five biggest beer drinking countries per capita, Poland has some of the highest excise tax in Europe which, by 2026, will have cumulatively been raised 10% in two years. Thankfully, independent craft producers are exempt from paying all of that, though bureaucracy remains a demanding part of running a brewery in Poland. 

In the face of such challenges, it’s all the more admirable that Brokreacja has retained its love of fun, and supported Polish artists and homebrewers for 10 years now. Jakub says a substantial part of Brokreacja’s second site is being specially designed to allow customers to order beer with their own labels. The team has done a couple of small batch runs for companies and events, but it’s been a nightmare to organise and execute on a standard canning line. Still, Brokreacja recognises that it's a fun thing to do, there’s demand for it, and that it exposes people to good beer, and so the team is keen to facilitate it. 

For now, it’s ploughing onwards, planning for the future, and keeping it fun.