The treasure trove of my one of my local shops is running dry – I’ve now drunk pretty much every beer they’ve got and they don’t seem to like changing the range any more. So, this is the last of the bunch – Dębowe Mocne.
As usual despite my polish heritage I have no idea about this beer other than that the ‘mocne’ means ‘strong’. However, after a quick google (and hitting upon my main source of info for polish beer, even if I disagree with almost every one of his reviews, Hywel’s Big Log) I now know some things. Dębowe means Oak, named so as it’s matured in oak barrels, and the bottle slogans of ‘Naturalna Moc’ and ‘Bogaty Smak’ mean ‘Naturally Strong’ (rather than fortified) and ‘Richly Flavoured’. If you understand polish then there is a website, complete with smiling man with his arms crossed and animated barrels, that looks like it’s cost a bit more to put up than the rest of the polish brewing industry have spent on the internet combined. There’s also an obligatory advert up on the YouTubes – this one has more of a classical theme than most of the beer ads I’ve seen recently:
It’s a darker then usual lager with a reddy gold tint and it has a slightly cereally, biscuity smell. To taste it’s quite pleasant – soft and richly malty, with a hint of hoppy bitterness at the end and a touch of caramel crispbreads. For a 7.5% polish beer it hides the alcohol rather well and is quite worryingly drinkable, although you can feel its effect creeping in behind the eyes quite quickly. All in all rather a nice find from the corner shop – the best of the mocne beers I’ve found as of yet.
Now to move on to the next shop on the parade. I just hope they have as interesting a meat selection as the last shop…
Dębowe Mocne
7.5% Oak Aged Polish Strong Lager
About £1.70 from your local corner shop
Had my first taste last night.Tastes ok, but not as good as Lech.
Different beer of course, and certainly a different strength.
I love this beer in some small way. IMO it’s the best tasting of the strong beers you can get from a corner shop, actually has a nice malty richness to it compared to that nasty..chaotic flavour of all the other shit (Kestrel, Super Ten, Spesh Brew etc) and is definitely better tasting than the Okicim(?) Mocne. I’d buy this over any other average beer in the cooler if I was feeling to get confidently buzzed, and the canned version is only £1 in some places.
Nothing on Leffe or the good ales/beers, but for corner-shop territory i’d probably rate it the best beer to get. Not to mention it’s smooth.
Also as a final note (read the blog you mentioned and i actually have to agree with you on disagreeing with him) all you need to do is google search ‘debowe mocne’ and google will happily translate the polish wiki page for you. Not much information but absolutely enough for anybody interested.
Found this beer (can version) recently at my local shop, was intrigued and wanted to understand all the writing! For a can of beer, it had many quotes! I liked ‘Warzone’ and imagined it was drunk during the war…lol. I quite like it, but find it a little ‘flat’. Thanks for your review…will check out rest of your site.