Mittwoch, 13. Dezember 2017

Soiree Polska: bieres et mets polonais; hosted by Fermenthings Brussels, December 9, 2017


Fermenthings
Pierre Timmermansstraat 28A, 1090 Jette - Brussel





I am really trying to do my best to follow Poland related events in Belgium (and I don’t mean the debates in the EU parliament), especially if they have anything to do with beer and food. Last time La Louviere (https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/11/soiree-degustation-bieres-polonaises.html), this time Brussels.

When I have seen that the Fermenthings is organizing Polish beer and food evening I have sked just 2 questions:
-        1. What beers do you have (and I hope that they are different than La Louviere)?
-        2. Do you have enough food this time?


Answer to the first one was not satisfactory – they have originally prepared same beers as David (I think that he was providing them).

Answer to the second one was scary – we have enough food but we don’t have bigos. No bigos, no Polish evening for me.

But, honestly, I wanted a Polish evening to work and be successful thus I have proposed two things – improve your beer stocks using my friends from Browarium – Sklepy Piwne (www.ebrowarium.pl). On top – we going to provide you with bigos. I was very happy to hear that Fermenthings contacted Browarium and got three new beers for the evening. And my wife has agreed to prepare a bigos.

I will spare you an epic story of bigos preparation – just to say that we have got the real thing, cooked for 3 days, full of meat and mushrooms. Nice and juicy. I believe that this was the first time we have prepared bigos in Belgium, therefore getting all the ingredients seemed very challenging in the beginning, but nowadays Polish shops are everywhere and we have managed.
And The Bigos (yes, I am going to call it The Bigos with a capital “B”) found broad acceptation by local community.


We were also positively surprised to find that the evening has started with a nice presentation made by Cedric, who have visited Poland before and have explored the world of the Polish craft beer. In fact, I was more than pleased to hear that the Belgian beer lover can be impressed by Polish beer scene. Thanks, Ced, you made my day.
I wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t comment few things in the presentation. First, I would argue with the lack of Beer tradition in Poland. In fact, we have a big one (that probably would be on the level on Belgian if not the history). See my article here (https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/11/soiree-degustation-bieres-polonaises.html). I also disagree with the fact that its better and more civilized to have a beer in the .33 bottles. 0.33 bottles are useless for the everyday use. I would be happy to pay a bit more and have 0.5 bottles only.
What I fully agree is that it is good that the size of the tasting glass for the beer festival should be smaller than it usually is in Poland (comment on that here: https://beerlander.blogspot.com/2017/06/krakow-beerweek-03-part-1-krakow.html).


Finally, I have to say that Fermenthings did a great job in bringing in some Polish sausages and pickled mushrooms. And we loved smoked cottage cheese.
Below you can see the long line of the beers for the evening – the two first from the right are the new ones. Very likely, we were the first people in Belgium to try them. Thanks, Fermenthings for nice evening
 
La Débauche / Kingpin Mango Rising

Hoppy sour ale with Mango and Tabasco sounds really brave to me. Polish/French collaboration brew is also interesting. Sadly, this as a beer it was a bit disappointing. It is a nice beer, with hoppy fruity notes, not to sour, refreshing. So far so good – but where is the tabasco? And the tabasco has (mostly) left the building. After drinking more and more of this beer you start to feel on the tongue that there is some spicy addition to the beer, but it is very subtle and could come from any kind of peppery addition. Overall – if you are looking for a nice sour beer – go for it. If you are a fan of tabasco and spiced beers – you are wrong here.

Kingpin Muerto

This pumpkin ale with sea buckthorn was clearly the weird beer of the evening. But positively weird. Clear aroma of pumpkin and herbs, some bitter hops and refreshing sea buckthorns in the taste. Must be the most original pumpkin ale I have had this year, and amazingly probably the most enjoyable one.







Kingpin Mandarin

To be frank, I like beers with the tea addition. If done correctly natural tea bitterness can add very interesting notes to the hops. Most of the beers I have tried had earl grey in it, but Kingpin dared to use green Sencha tea instead. It worked – an outcome is strong, aromatic West coast IPA, with clear tropical aromas, hops bitterness and medium tea in both aroma and flavor. Medium carbonation and a soft texture. Very drinkable.





Birbant El JaguaRIS


Another RIS? I am very RISonable person and RISpect anybody who can brew a good RIS. RISpect to Birbant for this JagulaRIS. Black, low carbonated, strong coffee aroma, dark and roasted. Bitter coffee taste is nice complemented with malt sweetness and hops. Very thick on the tongue, strong but no alcohol. Really good RIS.