I acquired a couple bottles each of Boss Beer and its cousin, Black Boss (a Baltic Porter), from a local restaurant that went out of business and was having a garage sale. Based on that alone, I was a bit dubious as to how good the beer would be; you never know for sure the kind of storage conditions the beer could have been kept under in a situation like that, for one thing.

But what’s unusual about this beer is its country of origin: Poland. From Browar Witnica, in fact, and no, that doesn’t really mean much to me other than they are a Polish brewer. The Boss Beer and the Black Boss are both brewed for export.

According to BeerAdvocate, the style here is a "Euro Strong Lager," and sure enough, the beer weighs in at 8.1% alcohol by volume—although to my taste (and my friends Paul’s and Sandi’s) it’s more reminiscent of an ale than a lager, and you don’t notice the alcohol.

Appearance: Like a Pilsner, very clear and bright, with an orange tint to it.

Smell: Malty with a fruity character that smells (to me) like an ale.

Taste: Tastes more like an ale, too… kind of a creamy copper malt thing going on, an earthy, musty hop, and some kind of rich wheat/rye undercurrent.

Mouthfeel: Light and fairly smooth. No sense of it’s alcohol strength.

Overall: It’s interesting inasmuch as it’s from Poland, but otherwise, I found it a fairly unremarkable beer, though better than almost all other "plain" Euro lagers I’ve had.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 3.41 out of 5, but only has 8 reviews (88% of which are positive). On RateBeer, it scores 2.13 out of 5, and is only in their 9th (wow) percentile.