Greetings, beer lovers! Happy pre-Labor Day weekend Friday, and yes, ‘tis chingchongchinaman once (or not) again as your guest FNBB host with the least, giving esquimaux a well-earned break from FNBB duties. For once, self the loser isn’t addressing some semi-grandiose topic, but instead focuses on the selection depicted above, the Polotmavý Ležák 12° from 2nd Shift Brewing in STL. This is a new flavor from 2nd Shift, so that in a sense, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I bought the 4-pack from the grocery store. However, I did like 2nd Shift Brewery’s Sunny Cat series, so that gave 2nd Shift Brewery some cred with me. That aside, the obvious question is: what got me to try this beer out? In turn, of course, one can extend to the larger question: what gets anyone to try out a new beer flavor in the first place?
In this instance, the answer is quite shallow, in an esoteric way typical of 3CM the loser. It’s simply that the name was in Czech. Or, in other words, I had no idea what the name meant, but since I recognized the language as Czech, it sounded cool to try out. You could also say that “3CM fell for advertising” (loser, he). However, FWIW, this flavor was also indeed new at the store, and upon being surprised by it, it was an impulse a last second impulse buy. After getting home and pulling up Google Translator, it turns out simply that:
Polotmavý Ležák <-> ‘Semi-dark Lager’
So it makes sense why 2nd Shift Brewing would use the Czech name, to make it sound more exotic, to win over suckers for foreign languages like me (haha). Fortunately, even if the English translation turned out to reveal a fairly ordinary name, the beer itself is very nice, far from ordinary, and fits its name just so.
From doing a little digging (as is 3CM’s wont), it turns out that I unintentionally supported, in a very small way, a good cause, mentioned in this Instagram post by 2nd Shift Brewing on this new beer:
“Our first collaboration with Beer Kulture & Green Bench Brewing brings you this lovely Czech Style Amber Lager pronounced "Polo - T’Ma - Veh Leh - Zhak"…
“One hundred percent of the beer’s proceeds will go to Beer Kulture to help carry out its mission and initiatives to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within the craft beer industry.”
This explains the “Kulture” part in the label (where I thought the word was “Vulture” when I first saw it). Relevant linky goodness:
* Beer Kulture
* Green Bench Brewing
In fact, given the goal of Beer Kulture to diversify the craft beer industry, it adds a tinge of irony to read the history from the brewery’s website behind the term Green Bench, as related to St. Petersburg, FL:
“In the early 1900's St. Petersburg was known nationwide as the "City of Green Benches." At their height, some 3,500 benches lined the downtown sidewalks, inviting passers-by to slow their pace and make friends of strangers. For decades these benches were a gathering place for residents and tourists alike and were a popular image used to market our city far and wide.
Established during segregation, these benches were sadly off limits to the African Americans in our city, as were the majority of city assets in our downtown core. It is our intent to ring in a new era of the Green Bench, where the original spirit and purpose of the benches is truly available to all.”
It’s kind of curious that I didn’t find a specific link (yet) on either 2nd Shift Brewery’s or Green Bench Brewing’s page that mentions Polotmavý Ležák 12°. So the Instagram post from 2nd Shift Brewery will have to do, in terms of trying to describe with suitable beer connoisseur marketing verbiage the flavor aspects of said brew:
“This beer has a malty richness with those classic bready flavors you find in darker lagers. It also has a light sweet caramelness. It’s just enough to not overpower the flavor so that the beer finishes dry and crisp. It’s just what you want in an amber lager during the hot summer months.”
I couldn’t do better than that, and I’m not sure that I’d want to try ;) . But this shows how an impulse purchase can something lead to learning something worthwhile, besides getting a nice beer. Or otherwise, this demonstrates yet again 3CM the loser’s ability to spin an inordinately long diary from very little starting material :) .
With that, time to turn it over to you folks. Besides the standard FNBB questions to spark virtual conversation:
* What are you drinking tonight?
* Anyone brewing their own?
And, of course, to recap, this other big question underpins this diary:
* What gets you to try out a new beer?
Inquiring minds, etc….