Whole Wild world

Beers from Somerset brewer Wild Beer have been steadily arriving in off licences over here for the last while. I've been gradually picking them up, usually to fill out a 4-for-€10 offer and sticking them in the back of the fridge. Today I'm taking them out for a spin.

Not really knowing how to decide a drinking order, I started on the lightest: Yōkai, at 4.5% ABV. No style is given, presumably because it's all about the weird ingredients and the pre-existing universe of beer genres is irrelevant. Or they just forgot. I'm going to call it a blonde ale as it's a bright golden colour and full-textured. At first I thought it was clear but there are large clumps floating through it. The head disappears quickly leaving an oily film on the surface. The ingredients, then, are yuzu, seaweed and Sichuan pepper. The latter is the most prominent, though it's a gentle spicing. A tiny citrus tang must be the yuzu but could equally come from some American hopping. I don't know what the seaweed ought to contribute -- maybe the gummy texture -- but I didn't get the umami promised on the can. The spec suggests something exciting but, while it's not dull, the flavours don't pop with fruit and spice as I'd hoped. Perhaps its muted nature is meant to suit it for delicate Japanese cuisine, but that heavy texture doesn't: I'd take a crisp dry lager with my sushi over this.

Citrus, passionfruit and pine are promised on the label of Quantic, a session IPA, but there aren't any added ingredients, it's all done with Simcoe, Mosaic and Cascade hops. The floaty bits are finer in this and it's a similar sparkling gold as the previous one. The aroma offers parallel fruit candy and resinous dank streams and that's kind of what the flavour delivers. The sticky fruit chews are most prominent, definitely passionfruit-flavoured rather than the real thing. The texture is light and there's plenty of fizz which helps keep things clean and hold the sweetness in check, but I think a session on this would still be too much before long. The more serious oily bitterness flashes across the palate late, fading quickly and leaving little aftertaste. It's interesting. It produces the kind of flavours that are more commonly found in fruited novelty beers, and somehow I feel better for knowing it's just hops. Whichever variety they used for flavour, they definitely got their money's worth from it.

Ordinarily, the sour fruity one would come at the beginning of the sequence, but with 5% ABV, Kalamansification is the last of today's cans. Kalamansi joins cherimoya under "fruit I'd never heard of until beer." It's in here with hibiscus, which adds its usual pink colour and strong cherry-raspberry flavour. The base beer is tangy and clean, and the two sides work well together, creating something refreshing and summery. There's a certain full sweetness, like ripe pear, and maybe that's the kalamansi, but regardless of the individual elements, it all works harmoniously; just tart enough, perfectly clean, complex without being busy and ideally suited to the balmy summer evening on which I drank it. A printed can suggests this is in regular production, and if so that's good news: it's worth coming back to. An antidote to soupy and sugary fruited sour beers.

I thought the one in the big bottle would be a roaring powerhouse so left it to last but we're actualy stepping down in ABV with The Blend 2017 at 4.9%. This was a prize in BrewDog's Beer Geek Awards three years ago and I had been looking for an excuse to open it. What's been blended? The label isn't specific, just some stuff to try and create a geuze. It looks the part: the colour of polished brass. The aroma is sharp and cidery, suggesting geuze to an extent but lacking the oaky spice of the best stuff. The flavour does better. There's the mineral gunpowder kick that's one of gueze's top features, and a crisp white-wine cleanness. Bretty funk adds a seasoning, and then a vinegar tang introduces a slight misstep on the finish. Overall, though, it's pretty damn good. Not too sour and no rough edges. Close enough to the real thing for me.

Interesting recipes have always been Wild Beer's thing, and it's good to see that continuing. I look forward to seeing what they bring out of the larder next.