Armchair traveling to a place I’ve never been and in all likelihood will never visit, Poland. Nothing wrong with Poland mind you, I’d love to stop by for a brew or two. But when you cross reference the bucket list with the bank account and factor in the preferences of my much better half, you end up with a laser focused list of things she would like to do that I can afford and Poland isn’t one of them. That doesn’t stop me from quaffing a Polish brew, so I here I go with a Okocim Mocne. *
With my thumbless grasp of the Polish language I made some assumptions. I knew Okocim was a town in Poland, so with a strong beer and the midnight black can I figured Mocne sounds like Mocha so this must be a dark beer. When I poured, what showed up was a golden effervescent lager. At this point, against my better judgement, which some say does not actually exist, I contacted the COMDB Translation Department.
Me: Hey COMDB Translation Department, how’s it going.
COMDB Translation Department: Cut the small talk, we’re busy here.
Me: I have a Polish lager called “Mocne”, which I assumed meant dark. Can you help me out.
COMDB Translation Department: You know what happens when you assume something don’t you.
Me: Yes, I know, I make an ass out of you and me.
COMDB Translation Department: In this case just you. Mocne in Polish means “strong”.
I won’t share the rest of the conversation with you as it was rather one sided since they hung up on me. Ok, so strong it is, and golden. It looks malty to me, is that a touch of ruby I see? It has a lager fresh malt aroma with a touch of apple fruit sweet.
First quaff is a light malt apple sweet, not as strong as I thought it would be. It has a very slight crisp finish and a touch of a boozy burn on the aftertaste. Definitely sweeter than I thought it would be. It settles into a sweet malt with a smooth finish and a mild aftertaste. No hops, bitters, or any other of the usual suspects. A middlin’ mouthfeel, not slick, not creamy, somewhere in-between. As it warmed the sweet subsides and the semi strong malt remained.
My one and done European vacation this summer, on $3 a day. No jet lag and just within my budget.
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