Pukki
Browary Regionalne Wąsosz

 

This is a case where the taste is better than anything else about it.
Yet the taste is so forgettable that you wonder why you're drinking it.
It is cloudy and pale brown. It looks like the leftovers of a homebrew.
There is a bit of smokiness on the nose, but very little comes through on the taste.
The taste is a bit woody/ sprucey, which is as advertised.
Carbonation is fine, but the lack of malt and alcohol means that this doesn't engage your mouth in any meaningful way.
Very disappointing, yet still drinkable. Odd.

330ml bottle, day 12 of the 2016 Craft BeerAdvent calendar - aaaah, a style that doesn't exist on BA (grodziskie), but gets shoved into the smoked beer classification.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some random sea waves crashing on the shore lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.

It smells of smoked pork, gritty and grainy wheat crackers, mild generic citrus rind, and some tame leafy, earthy, and piney (sprucey?) hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet wheat cereal, a lesser smoked ham meatiness than that in the aroma, muddled citrus and pome fruity esters, a touch of earthy yeastiness, and some plain leafy, woodsy, and, ok, sprucey green hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite light on its nimble frothy feet, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, the smoke letting up even more by this point. It finishes off-dry, with the base malt keeping 'er steady, while the meat and forest characters fade into that good night.

Overall, this is a fairly nice smoked brew, as all the extra flavours do well to not overstay their welcome - the smoke is balanced and approachable, and the green essences keep their astringencies in check. Also, given the label, I'm just wondering as to which meaning in Finnish this 'Pukki' refers - either Santa, or 'a lecherous man'? Probably the former. Probably.

Day 12 on the 2016 Craft Beer Advent Calendar.

Poured a Hazy amber with some sediment seen. Nice frothy 2 inch head which settled pretty quick.

A smokey yet leafy hops scent still present within.

I have to admit I’ve only had two smoked beers in my life and both were so heavy in smoked taste they turned me off so I was a little worried about this one. As I’m no expert in the style I’m not sure if this is weak for a smoked beer or the others were in fact too heavy because I rather enjoyed the mix of roasted and leafy hops that came through, bang on to the smell. For scoring taste though I will defer a bit to what others have said here so far however I see thats one person lol.

As advertised and renewed my interest in smoked beers.

Pours a nice head, thin ring of retention shows some lace. Light yellow, crystal clear.

Evergreen aroma with a light smoke.

More smoke in the flavour, grainy biscuit, spruce?

Light body and carbonation.