All Access Subscribers can download the Beersmith and BeerXML version of this recipe. Subscribe today.
Firstep has taken its first steps, and they are purposeful.
Michal Minarik cofounded the Firstep brand in early 2024 in his native Slovakia, along with friends Rafael Medina Armenta and Peter Škrovan. Minarik formerly brewed at the highly regarded Sibeeria craft brewery in Czechia; Armenta also worked there. For now, the Firstep team produces their beers at a small local brewery in Slovakia, with plans to open their own brewpub in the near future.
Meanwhile, they haven’t wasted time establishing their credentials in the region, taking home Best IPA and Best of Show honors for this beer at the recent King of Craft 2025 competition, held at the Central European Brewers Conference in Budapest, Hungary.
“Polymorph is a central European twist on cold IPA,” Minarik says. “We wanted a hop-forward, bottom-fermented beer with no adjunct grains but couldn’t really figure out what beer style it actually is—the name of the beer reflects the fact that these kinds of brews can take many different forms.” (He says the name is also a reference to the British sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf.)
Minarik continues: “To give the simple, dry body a bit more substance, we opted for a single decoction and German hops on the hot side. To boost the classic New World hoppy profile, it uses two different flowable hop products along with T-90s.”
Polymorph began as a beer made for the Firstep team’s friends at the Oerlikon Brewery in Zürich, Switzerland, “whose brewery was undergoing reconstruction at the time, and who were in need of a chuggable IPA for their bar. This one seemed to do the trick.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.051 (12.7°P)
FG: 1.007 (1.9°P)
IBUs: 40
ABV: 5.9%
