The Bar Towel

I gave this a whirl and was most pleased. The dullish, sometimes lightstruck, taste of some bottled imports is completely absent. I think the reasons are, i) freshness - the beer seems by the can markings to be not more than two months old, ii) the good taste (recipe), and iii) the way it is canned. The beer is pure and sweet-tasting. I wouldn't call it the best lager at LCBO but it is an excellent import lager and its merits can be appreciated without the distractions mentioned.

The taste is cereal-like, somewhat like Staropramen, with a dry background that might be the house yeast. The hops reinforce the dryness and offer an interesting clove-like or herbal taste.

This Polish beer is evidently all-malt and is the best lager from east of Germany and the Czech lands that I've had available in this province.

See by the way for an excellent current report on the merits of beers that are well-canned Steve Beaumont's site (www.worldofbeer.com). I agree fully with Steve's comments.

Gary

I tasted this today :

Good impressions at first taste...nice aroma herbal bouquet over bready malts. sturdy malt body, a lemon and bread decernment in the middle, and a clean crisp finish with a light biscuit aftertaste...no sweetness....my take is this in the same class as Okocim Zagloba ...possibly a tad lighter but definately well malted and nicely ( read: artfully) hopped ( lublins?) for balance and mid-palate release......

....and at 1.75 for 1/2 liter you wanna know this is gonna be in my fridge...it's a bargain at that price.

Uhh sorry guys? Are we talking about the same beer? The new Lech at the LCBO?


While I do think that it is nowhere even close to offensive or poor, I do think there are 100 other same beers that are way to similar to even bother with this. Though the 1.75 price tag is attractive, and I did buy 12. But having said that, you guys are getting way more flavours and aromas than I ever did. Seems to be a boring beer, and brewed in a boring style for that matter.


Thoughts?

SteelbackGuy wrote:Uhh sorry guys? Are we talking about the same beer? The new Lech at the LCBO?


While I do think that it is nowhere even close to offensive or poor, I do think there are 100 other same beers that are way to similar to even bother with this. Though the 1.75 price tag is attractive, and I did buy 12. But having said that, you guys are getting way more flavours and aromas than I ever did. Seems to be a boring beer, and brewed in a boring style for that matter.


Thoughts?

I only bought 2 as I didn't expect much and I didn't want to be stuck with a lot....it surprised me...it was decent and malt pronounced like a Okocim lager.

Don't judge it as a pilsner..it's not...it's a polish golden lager...and a decent all malt one....stack it against a Zagloba.

I thought it was better than most of the east block welfare lagers and a lot of the second rung canned commercial German pilsners...certainly better than FAXE...maybe your taste buds were switched off by a precognitive impression of a bland Ruski lager?

Ok you win. You're right, and I agree. It is decent. And like I said before, when it comes down to Mariner or Lech, Ill pik the lech for the price tag.

I'd add that I tasted it only half-chilled and its qualities really come through that way. I think Pootz is right, the hops used are Lublins and they have an interesting taste, but the beer needs to be not too cold to get the subtleties.

The general raft of Euro lagers, especially from the former east bloc, to my taste are much less good than Lech either because they are older or just not as well made.

Gary

SteelbackGuy wrote:Ok you win. You're right, and I agree. It is decent. And like I said before, when it comes down to Mariner or Lech, Ill pik the lech for the price tag.

Mariner is slop by comparison....It IS a true welfare lager from Holland and so weak and fizzy any real malt in it is barely detectable. Whenever a large brewer cheapens out the malts and makes a weak lager it seems they always try to compensate by filling the missing body with CO2 gas.

Now, Lech is a tad fizzy up front for my tastes but if you let it sit and let the gas get out it's really a medium bodied lager...not great, but fair to good....it tastes better as it warms...another good sign we're dealing with all malt beer with some coditioning age in the process......most of the welfare lagers taste like crap warmer because you can detect the adjucts and/or lack of cold aging ( lagering) in the sharp un rounded tastes....these get covered up when served colder.

Lech is good value for the money...it's a decent Polish golden lager but if I had to pay the same price as Okocim for it it would stay on the shelf.

The bargain of the decade at the LCBO right now is an undervalued decent all-malt dutch pilsner called Bavaria Holland beer. All malt, no adjuncts, medium bodied well hopped....like a richer maltier fuller bodied Heineken without the "dutch skunk"...$1.65 per 500ml can! there's a deal!

My Bavaria Holland beer review from RB:

Aroma is fairly well pronounced grainy/bready malts with light floral hopping somewhat like clover ( no dutch skunk here like Heineken)...

..fair malt spine. soft mineral mouth feel, smooth rounded malty character....

Fairly 2 dimensional Dutch lager with a good dose of carapils malts up front then a light herbal-lemony effect from attenuated nobel hopping, clean finish, slight drying from a light use of wheat... biscuit after taste ....like a malty, soft pilsner....this is what Grolsch would taste like if they pumped up their malts and were medium bodied.

A decent Euro all malt golden lager from a large Dutch brewer who do their own malting....clean malty taste, minimal sweetness, subdued lemmony hopping, soft mouth feel...no surprizes or over complexity....very drinkable....I’ll buy more if there is no JR Brickman around.

I note that many reviews "detect" adjuncts ( primarily corn) in this beer...there are NO adjuncts. This beer is made by Holland's largest malter...here is the break down:

http://www.bavariahollandbeer.us/ingredients.html

I picked up a can of the Lech today, and I'm just finishing it off now. As far as Polish lagers go, it's pretty decent - not quite my favourite of those we can get at the LCBO, but it's up there.

You can definately tell that it's all malt, as there's nary a hint of those cheap adjunct aromas and flavours that I get from other Eastern Eurolagers. Clean and well-made, with some nice herbal notes. This will be a good option in the future when I'm in the mood for something light and refreshing.

I also got a can of Bavaria Holland which I'll likely try tomorrow.

I had a couple of the Bavaria Holland at the beach yesterday and with BBQ ribs...funny how fresh air makes your taste all the more accute.....The soft malts and mineral mouth feel were really prevelent and I could really detect the small amount of wheat they use in this brew...right at the finish.

Nothing like a cool beer on a warm day at the beach and this Bavaria was the type of not overly complicated beer that filled the bill.