Buy in haste, drink at leisure

Today's beers were impulse purchases, acquired on my way through Wrocław airport back in June. "Browary Sezonowe" is the purported manufacturer, which turns out to be a brand owned by the local arm of Carlsberg though the beer is brewed at the independent Staropolski brewery. I sure there was solid reasoning behind that arrangement.

First opened was Pszeniczne Ciemne. As the name makes perfectly clear, this is a dark wheat beer. It turned out very rough and raw, like low-maintenance homebrew. Pouring caused some congealed gobbets of dead yeast to plop into the glass and there was no Bavarian-style foam on top. The result is a swampy brown soup with no head. On tasting there's a yeast spice mixed with banana esters and a harsh roast barley dryness seasoned with smoke. From the minimalist branding I was expecting something processed and dull, but it's the opposite: characterful, but not in a good way, suggesting a brewer that hasn't quite got its act together. There are no properly nasty off flavours and I did get through drinking it, but was apprehensive about what was next.

It didn't help that this was a 6% ABV "English IPA". It looks fine, though: a medium amber colour and clear because I poured carefully. The aroma is a lemon-curd mix of sweetness and acid, with some banana and ginger thrown in for complexity. The flavour is sharply bitter in a medicinal way: liquorice, moving to yarrow and nettle. This is backed with syrupy toffee and burnt caramel -- heavy, as befits the strength. And yet it's all cleanly executed; the flavours staying distinct with no building heat or other domineering characteristics. It's not easy drinking but it is multifaceted. And while it tastes much more like an English strong ale than an IPA, I rather enjoyed it. It's probably better suited to winter evenings than balmy early autumn, however.

There are a handful of other beers in the Sezonowe range, but unless you're desperate for swingtop bottles I see no compelling reason to seek them out.