Wind and Grass

It’s always good to have a ,mid-week surprise, especially when it involves beer. Tuesday night was supposed to be a straight home night, but the route back to IPIP towers from the coal-face goes dangerously close to Cześć, so close that a strongish gust of an ill wind can blow a weary traveler through the door and right up to the bar….

Black Wind
Fortunately the wind inside Cześć that night was very favourable: Black Wind, an oatmeal stout from Pracownia Piwa and Jabeerwocky brewed with citrus zest. At first it’s just another oatmeal stout on the nose: dark chocolate, roasted malt and hints of chicory coffee, but then you get surprising grapefruit notes. It’s a bit like a Terry’s Dark Chocolate Grapefruit, if Terry’s were to make such a thing. On the mouth it’s initially very much a classic milk stout, with a very good mouthfeel for a Polish stout (I'd love to try this from a hand-pump), but then orange and grapefruit flavours arrive quite unexpectedly, giving it a very refreshing flavour for a stout. In short it’s another winner from this collaboration between an excellent brewery and one of IPIP’s favourite bars. Sadly the barrel was polished off that night, but keep an eye on ontap.pl for other places with this – apparently it’s on right now at Piwny Kolektyw and frankly well worth the trip out to Bemowo just for a pint.

Exactly what the name says it is

Next came another odd sounding combination: Bison Grass and Peppermint Sweet Saison from Piwojad. Got to admit that this wasn’t a brewery I’d heard much about before, but they’re a contract brewery from Krakow and, if this beer’s anything to go by, very much one to watch. Recently it seems that brewers have been throwing darts at lists of ingredients in order to come up with ever more bizarre combinations, but there’s a bloody good reason for not making things such as tomato yogurt espresso lager (please Hopium, don’t try it): they taste rubbish. But this bison grass peppermint Saison is a thing of beauty. The first smell that smacks you in the nose is peppermint, but you quickly pick up bison grass, the flowery grassy smell that will be instantly familiar to anybody that’s spent much time in Poland. There’s also just a hint of the familiar esters you’d expect from a Saison. The mouth is very much a classic saison: quite full and very carbonated but finely carbonated. But the flavour is like no Saison you’ve had before: an initial wallop of peppery mint that fades to bison grass tartness, and then mint again. The finish is more bison grass but the fumey sort of flavour that you’d expect right at the finish of a shot of Zubrowka; did the brewery add a measure of that to this beer? Unfortunately this beer isn’t currently listed on ontap.pl, but, as always, that could change by the time this post is published. One that is showing up right now is the sister beer of this one, Citrus Rosemary Saison, and it’s at Chmielarnia Marszałkowska too. It also seems that this brewery will soon be launching something featuring strawberries, exactly what is unclear right now but it could well be more essential drinking.

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