My luck with Polish beers has not been good lately if the piwo isn't a pale lager from Okocim or Żywiec or another of the bigger Polish breweries. Binny's seems to keep beers from Poland on their shelves long past their lifespans until they are these musty, skunky pale imitations of their former selves. And so when I came across this brew I was a bit gun shy.
I didn't find it at Binny's, however, but rather at Deli 4 You in Schaumburg back in December when I was returning to Madison from having spent some time in Chicago at the Christkindlmarkt. And the date on the label read 30.06.2026. Well within freshness tolerance. The Polish craft beer selection there was small but how many Polish craft beers actually get exported to the U.S.? I think they stocked the full complement of Browar Błonie's Polish Folklore series. Why did I buy this one? That is lost to the ages. It could simply have been that I was in the mood for a pilsner that day. (There was, if I recall correctly, a label in English on the back.)
The description at the brewery's website as translated by Google reads, "Light, unfiltered, dry-hopped beer. Refreshing taste and floral-herbal aroma." Oh, the name translated to "The Hen Sang".
For tasting, I busted out my new pilsner glass which I got at Goodwill when shopping for things for my new apartment. A couple years back I gave away most of my beer glasses but wanted a couple two tree for my new life.
The piwo was yellow and had a slight haze - it's unfiltered, remember? There were lots and lots of bubbles which is something I associated with the pils. My pour produced a small head of lovely white foam which lasted an average amount of time. It appeared to be a very pretty pils, to my eyes. The aroma was just as nice with the Polish hops - variety unknown - giving off straw and floral smells. A nice, cracker-like maltiness was to be had as well.
All of those bubbles portended the piwo's big fizz. A delicate biscuity malt flavor was joined by hops that gave a lovely floral taste along with a mild dose of herbal and some straw notes. The maltiness lingered a couple seconds on the finish before the hops rushed in with their floral/straw combo and some attendant bitterness. My tongue tasted smoothness which I figured came from the malt even though there wasn't much grain flavor to be had - some kind of malty-carbo-palimpsest? Just enough bitterness for a slight zip at the end to go with the moderate dryness.
Oh mama, this was a great piwo! It had the delicate pilsner malt flavor down perfectly and I simply adored the floral aroma and taste that the hops gave. The piwo was light and delicate and had just the right floral everything. Just fantastic stuff.
Junk food pairing: The lovely, tasty, delicate floral taste here deserves not to be overshadowed so stick with something on the mellower side such as Simply White Cheddar Cheetos Puffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment