Three faces of IPA

Wild Beer used to be that upmarket English brewery whose beer came in the fancy painted bottles. Now, there's loads of them, and they're in cans. I gathered up a handful to tell you about them.

The first to catch my attention was Wild IPA. I like it when hops and sour cultures get together, and who better than mixed fermentation specialists Wild? The first alarm bell was when the can didn't mention the hop varieties involved: surely that's material information in a beer like this? Secondly, it was kinda dark when it poured: an orangey amber, where most of these are bright and yellow because malt is not their friend. Nevertheless I loved the aroma -- it's spicy citric bathsalts with loads of lavender and bergamot. 5.2% ABV is a sizeable strength for this sort of thing, and the mouthfeel is even bigger than that. It's chewy, which is not necessarily what I want from a spritzy hopped-up sour ale.

Things made more sense on tasting, where I realised this is not the beer I expected it to be. It is fuller and slower, and requires a bit of deliberation. Resins are the heart of it: cedar, sandalwood, incense. There's a meadowy floral topnote and a base of heavier citronella and coconut oil. I'm glad I poured it into a goblet because it's one to swirl, savour and explore. Also, I should make it clear that this is not sour. There's a certain fruity funk, but nothing so simple as refreshing tartness. Once I recognised what it was, I could relax with it. It does an amazing job at the strength, tasting several percentage points higher than it is. While it's enjoyable, I don't know that I'd go for more than one: the resins do tend to stick to the palate somewhat. Onwards!

Unsurprisingly given their name and remit, Wild Beer has been getting busy with the kveik, results including this Simcoe/Vic Secret IPA called Vivo. It's a middling 4.9% ABV and filled out a 4-for-€10, so keenly priced. It pours hazy, a pale shade of orange, and smells bright and juicy, promising fun, but the undemanding sort. Sure enough it's light and refreshing, the foretaste bringing happy satsumas and tangerines, somewhat out of keeping, given the serious hop varieties employed. It gets bigger and danker later on, making for a very enjoyable complexity. Vic Secret's liquorice kick arrives in the finish. This is a lovely sessioner brimming with new world hop joy. Lively, fresh and zippy, it is well named.

Last up is another IPA, Freestone, promising stonefruit flavours from its use of New Zealand hops Wai-iti, Rakau and Nectaron. They've New Englanded it by making it hazy and adding oats, as well as buckwheat, for some reason. It certainly doesn't smell fruity. There's a dry and savoury, almost acrid, aroma, like salted popcorn, or all the husky detritus left at the bottom when the popcorn is gone. Not attractive. And, sadly, the flavour is largely a variation on that. I certainly wouldn't have trusted  Saaz-derived Rakau to deliver stonefruit, whatever about the others. It's very savoury, mixing tahini paste with mint, garlic and parsley to create something I'd rather dip a lamb kofta in than drink. I'm not sure what's worse: that it failed to deliver on the description, or that it actively tastes unpleasant. At least it's only 5.8% ABV, so there isn't a gut punch of cloying heat to go with the sesame. It's a clean sort of horrible.

A mere three beers, but something of a rollercoaster from Wild here. Much as I love the variety, I would prefer twists that aren't so unexpected and disorientating.