Tonight's last dance has been saved for something that I'm afraid is gonna be like a once in a lifetime thing. I will taste my second ever Jopejskie/Jopenbier and even so that I can review it side by side with another Jopejskie. Jopejskie is a historical beerstyle from the Gdańsk Region in Poland only. To my knowledge, there are just a few Jopejskies available in Poland and in the entire world right now. The benchmark is a Jopejskie by PG4. The assessed beer is Gaja by Olimp (the label says the ABV is 6.5 %). I have reviewed PG4's Jopejskie twice and rated it as full five stars both times. I will not review PG4 anymore, my two reviews are in Pint Please if you're interested. However, I'll use PG4 as a baseline against which Gaja will be reviewed and rated. This comparison and review is made possible by God-Emperor's Wraith Form who was so kind to donate a bottle of Gaja to me. Thank you so much!!! 🙏🏻 PG4's brew I had bought myself in Gdańsk in January. Ok, so much for the introduction. Let's cut the crap and get started. The beer looks opaque jet black, just like the PG4's version. A small difference is that Gaja produces a faint tan short-lived lace ring on top whereas PG4 is fully headless. The scent offers a good amount of licorice, molasses and a tiny injection of sour lingonberry, accompanied by roasted rye malt and a tad herb liqueur. The fragrance is a bit thinner and sourer than that of PG4's product. The taste is considerably thick and herbal. I pick herb liqueur and generous licorice, a vast bowl of prune, some raisin, thick sticky syrup and a bit of date. On the berry side, I detect raspberry and lingonberry. Surprising! The biggest difference is that PG4 is even more velvety and fuller and lacks berry-like hints whereas Gaja shows even remotely sour aromas. The body is robust. The beer finishes with herb liqueur, loads of licorice, thick syrup and a reasonable amendment of lingonberry as well as some raspberry juice. Prune and raisin step only hastily in the limelight, just to disappear in the shadows almost immediately. The aftertaste serves raspberry licorice candy for the tastebuds over medium to long duration. The main difference is linked to softness, fullness and sourness, just like in the actual taste. The mouthfeel is full, heavy, relatively sappy, sticky and lip-glueing. It's also savory, distinctly herbal and especially liqueur-like as well as remotely tart. Moreover, the mouthfeel is reasonably soft and smooth but lags behind the incredible velvetiness of PG4. Still extraordinary! 🖤🖤🖤

Just in time for 1900th beer celebration, a Jopenbier (Piwo Jopejskie) from Poland. In short, Jopenbier is a traditional ale from Gdansk, featuring spontaneous fermentation and dark, heavy taste. This one is smoked Jopenbier with insane 45 degree plato, meaning that a lot of ingredients used making this didn't ferment to alcohol. So it should be super heavy for 6% abv. Also featuring bretta and lactobacilus. Plus it came in cutest little bottle ever! 100ml with a patent cork. The bottle had best before of 31/12/21 and was most likely bottled two years before that. Lambicy scent with dried fruits and syrupiness. Some layered dry, wooden smoke there. Kissel is here. Very thick body, syrupy like structure. Viscous to the max. Syrup, caramel, wooden smokiness, lambicy elements of wild yeast. Sticks the mouth with wild yeasty smoked sauna flavour. That was the first sip which already feels enough. Damn, should pour the rest back to the bottle now to enjoy in future... Although, nope, already filled the bottle with water (hoping to use it as a decoration in future, as long as I clear out the sediment that sticked quite hard in the bottom). More sips in. Caramel, prominent but very balanced smokiness, wild yeast and uniquely thick mouthfeel. Finish flavour is a bit sharp-ish, but not in a traditional sense. It has some puckering concentration of wild yeast flavour. A neat sensation of wooden smoke resides in the mouth long after sipping. Like a campfire style flavour but very smooth and refined. Funnily enough, gets a bit less thicker halfway down the bottle. No idea why. That or I'm just getting used to it. Can hardly review this in any usual way I review beers. Comparing to the other piwo jopejskie I had last summer, it doesn't fall too far off considering the elements of the style. Still, I think I liked the red wine barrel aged one more than this smoky boy. Not far from that glorious beast, though. Need to drink more piwo jopejskie in future.