Our local Turkish-run corner shop sells some surprisingly good beer but, on the flipside, they make most of their money flogging nasty ciders and strong lagers to tramps. Which is Lech Pils?
Lech Pils caught our eye because we’ve got a soft spot for Poland and because, unlike Lech Premium, it isn’t that commonly seen in the UK. There was also the thought in the back of our minds that, if Premium is a boring lager (and it is) then maybe Pils would actually be something more interesting — perhaps drier, hoppier and more bitter? It certainly looked the part, being as pale as a beer can be, and quite gently carbonated.
Sadly, it’s rubbish. It smells a bit like WD40 and tastes like mouthwash. It reminded us of Fosters, and that’s not a good thing. Straight afterwards, we had a Pilsner Urquell for the sake of comparison, and it was streets ahead. Could this be the least surprising conclusion to a beer review ever?
When Boak lived in Poland, Lech Premium was her beer of choice, being the least likely of all the Polish beer brands to give her a migraine. “Best of a bad bunch” would be the phrase…
8 replies on “Definitely not beer of the week”
Lech seems to be the number one discarded beer can round our way. K Cider is a close second.
The only Polish beer I’ve tried (so far) that I like is bottled Zywiec – and it goes very well with chilli beef at the mighty Singburi in L’stone.
Ah, Singburi. Haven’t been there for ages.
Haven’t seen this before, but you’ve steered me away from it now! And yes, Lech/Tyskie are certainly becoming more ubiquitous in these parts, too.
If only Heineken would bring in Zywiec Porter, now that is one gorgeous beer, lagered for three months (or thereabouts) to boot.
Isn’t it, though? In London corner shops we can get eastern European dark lager, wheat beer, Dortmunder, pils and Maerzen, but never stout or porter. Very annoying.
Sadly porters are in terminal decline in the east (a bit like Weissbier in the 1960s so there might be hope), one night in Vilnius a couple of years ago I asked someone where I could get a dark beer they directed me to an Irish bar…on the other hand in Krakow we found a bar selling draught Zywiec Porter, good god we didn’t half get stuck in.
And presumably suffered a suitably dark hangover the following day… it’s wonderful but powerful.
The best Polish beer I have had is Piwo Zywe from Brovar Amber, very nice indeed. When I would visit Poznan regularly in the late 90s I remember drinking EB or something called 10,5 but have no recollection if they were good or otherwise, but after the bus back to London I wanted a Caffreys to erase the memories (admittedly that could have been the potential in-laws).