LAZY BARRY

LAZY BARRY



Style: Grodziskie, American Grodzisz
Brewed: AleBrowar/Nepomucen
Tested: Bottle, August 2016

After a long search, I have detected in my beer basement the last bottle of a smoked beer. It is American Grodzisz from AleBrowar. Before I will discuss this beer, few words about the style and brewery.

Grodzisz/Grodziskie (already discussed here…) is a kind of light smoked, very refreshing beer, typically coming from Poland. Alebrowar is iconic to Polish beer revolution and some of the best beers of the new wave came from them.

The major question for me is whether the addition of American hops can change something in the Grodzisz style. Please, do not get me wrong – Lazy Barry is an excellent Grodzisz, light smoked, sparkling and refreshing. But so are the rest of the Grodzisz-type beers on the market. Unfortunately, the experiment with addition of American hops does not seem to change anything in the aroma and taste of the beer. Aroma? Smoked. Taste: smoked, acidic, fresh.

Any floral, hoppy aroma typical to American Hops? NOT PRESENT. Forget it, some styles are just hard to be invented new. This one will not change it. Still, nice and refreshing beer.

Grätzhainer, Grodziskie-Lichtenhainer hybrid

GRÄTZHAINER


Style: Grodziskie-Lichtenhainer hybrid
Brewed: Freigeist & Kingpin
Tested: Bottle, August 2016

What I like about this beer is the collaboration spirit between Polish brewery (Kingpin) and German brewer (Freigeist Bierkultur). What I really appreciate is that the collaboration aims in combining two original (and almost forgotten beer styles: German Lichtenhainer and Polish Grätzer/Grodziskie. What two styles have in common is the use of smoked ingredients and this clearly worked well in Grätzheiner.

What you already can appreciate on the photo is beautiful golden color of the beer. Also visible lack of head. In fact, Grätzheiner is very little carbonated (too little for my taste). Smoked components are clearly dominating both aroma and taste, sour is almost undetectable.

This is the sheer characterization of the beer. From now on I was having a problem – what to write to not harm the interesting beer.

Why?

I generally do not like smoked beers, and that one was not an exception. So if you know that smoked beer is not your cup of tea – stay away.

However, if you like smoked beers (and some people do) it’s a MUST. If you are not shy of trying interesting bier it is also a must – certainly one of the most interesting beers on the market.