Greetings fellow guilders. We are winding up our travels with a tour of Eastern Europe. Frost is appearing on the inside of the camper windows in the morning and the Xmas BBQ is looming on the horizon. Time to say Kia koa and come home, before I put anymore dents in the rental.
There’s something in my beer…
We were in Krakow, enjoying the Day of the dead or Wszystkich Swietych (I think ‘y’ is a vowel here), when we came across this ethnological item. They call it “grzane piwo” (geh-sza-neh pi-vo) which translates to “mulled beer”. The average overnight winter temperature is -5° in Warsaw, which I think explains the rationale. It came in a heavy glass mug which was pre-heated so the beer stayed warm. Spiced with cinnamon, cloves and citrus, the most notable attribute was how the heat enhanced the bitterness of the hops. I think the base beer was a Pilsner, and I wonder how this would work with something dark and sweet, like a milk stout. I don’t know if it ever gets cold enough in Aoteroa to warrant trying this at home, but if you are one of those weirdos who likes iced coffee, then here’s your mate.
“Oh, some more black patent, please.”
Next up is this Baltic Porter by Zywiec Breweries, from the town of the same name in Poland. At 9.5% abv, this is on the upper end of the scale for the style (or about mid-range on the Golics scale ;) The aroma presents some molasses and coffee notes, no hops and subdued malt character. The strongest flavor characteristic is the bitter roasted barley, which dominates the malt and contributes to the perceived hop bitterness. It has a smooth but dry finish, the alcohol warmth is modest and much less than expected from the label, so watch out. Overall, I didn’t rate this example very highly, it lacks finesse. Like most of Europe, Zywiec is owned by Heineken.
Ready for the hot beer season….
Plzen, Czechia is just down the road from Prague, so I conned my travel companion into making a short detour to the Mecca of Pilsner beers. The town itself is still recovering from the communist era, it appears, but signs for Pilsner Urquell are everywhere in Eastern Europe. Skipping the over-priced brewery tour, where they explain how malted barley is combined with hops and yeast blah bla blah, we instead entered the first pub we came to, frequented by the locals. Making use of hand gestures and Google translate, we ordered some beer and food. The goulash was quite good and I failed to find the traditional beef knuckle (ovar) but the ribs were excellent. The Pilsner was served in a heavy dimpled mug as pictured (apparently the owners have never read Michael Jackson). But, yes, the beer was good. I am not a lager fan, but you could tell this was very fresh pilsner, the hops were more fruity than spicy, but were delicately balanced by the clean, barley malt flavor. It reminded me of the non-pasteurised, made-this-week beer you can get in Vietnam, for 15¢ a serving. Slightly sweet and refreshing.
Well, that’s about it from me for this trip. I hope to see you all soon, on that little island just off the coast of Australia.