After seeing Black Philip on a can of hard apple cider leading us into dark temptation, we now have a label featuring a white goat snuggling contentedly with a young Polish gal beckoning us into inter-species conviviality. This comes courtesy of Giant Jones Brewing here in Madison.
The beer is called Koźlak and it conjures in my mind images of a detective, likely because it is close to Kolchak and Kojak. While "Koźlak" may look mysterious with its exotic diacritical mark, it is, as I have just discovered, a rather mundane word and simply means bock. Giant Jones calls it a Polish-style bock as it was brewed with Marynka hops.
I don't know if Polish brewers actually brew their bocks with Marynka hops or not. Since Giant Jones' brews are organic, this variety must be fairly common, at least in Poland, if there's an organic version. My knowledge of Polish hops extends no further than Lublin/Lubelska.
My assumption here is that, since my bottle was filled back in April, that this was meant to be a spring bock. I am not sure how long it was lagered but it sat around for 6+ months after bottling. Hopefully it was taken good care of during this time.
My pour produced a rather nice loose, tan head but it went away quickly and I fumbled with my camera so I wasn't able to get a decent photo of it. And, as you can see, I wasn't able to get a decent photograph of even just a tad of foam. The brew was a lovely amber color, which seems only fitting for a Polish beer, and was quite clear allowing me to spy a goodly number of bubbles inside. My initial sniff caught caramel and a fruitiness that I can best describe as a generic berry scent - something akin to Boo Berry cereal. My mind may have caught this latter smell because there was a box of that very cereal atop the refrigerator when I pulled the bottle out. Beneath all that was a hint of lemon and a dash of hay. That green aroma grew as the beer warmed.
Seeing all of those bubbles made me think my mouth was in for some nice fizz and indeed it was. Good thing too as the body was medium-heavy. I was surprised that it wasn't very sweet, though caramel and stone fruit were prominent flavors. The hops added something herbal. On the swallow, those malty flavors faded allowing a moderately potent hoppiness to emerge. Marynka must be a bittering hop as the finish was quite brisk with hefty doses of both bitterness and dryness.
Koźlak was a fine brew. Those hops surely added the lemon and hay scents, which I really liked, and their bitterness made for a very nice contrast to the big malt flavors. I am left to wonder what this beer tasted like fresh. As it was, Koźlak's 7.9% A.B.V. left me feeling nice'n'warm on a chilly fall evening. Maybe I can try it again next spring.
Junk food pairing: Pair your Koźlak with a bag of potato chips. I find that Jays Hot Stuff with its bold paprika heat stands up to the big bock. Plus Old Dutch Dill Pickle chips provide a nice contrast to the mega-maltiness.
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