A revived strong wheat ale from Breslau — today’s Wrocław, in Silesia. Typically 6.0–7.0% ABV, with a pronounced malt character and a grain bill that can run as high as 80 percent wheat malt, alongside Pilsner and other pale, toasted, or dark specialty malts. Brewed with ale yeast rather than a wheat-beer strain, it ranges from straw-pale to black depending on the version, and is distinctly full and malt-sweet.
In the glass
Origin
Schöps — anglicized as Schoeps — was a strong wheat ale brewed in Breslau, the principal city of Silesia and today the Polish city of Wrocław. Its production is documented from the mid-16th century, and over the next two centuries it built a reputation that reached well beyond Silesia, becoming one of the city’s signature products. Brewed largely from wheat malt and good local water, it was a strong, malt-rich beer.
Like other regional wheat beers of central Europe, Schöps declined and ultimately disappeared as industrial lager brewing took over, and for a long time it survived only in historical records. Interest in reconstructing lost central-European styles brought it back in the modern era, with brewers in Wrocław and elsewhere producing revived versions, and the style was added to contemporary style guidelines as a distinct historical entry.
Notes
Schöps belongs to a family of strong central-European wheat beers that were largely erased by the rise of lager — a group that also includes Poland’s grodziskie, though grodziskie is a featherweight smoked beer and Schöps is a strong, full, malt-sweet one. The defining technical point is the yeast: despite the heavy wheat grist, Schöps is fermented with ordinary ale yeast, not a German wheat-beer strain, so it lacks the banana-and-clove signature a drinker might expect from a wheat beer. Pale and dark interpretations both fall under the style, which is why its color range is unusually wide.
Defining examples
Browar Stu Mostów (100 Bridges) Breslauer Schöps (Wrocław)·Various Polish and international craft revivals