Sitting in, looking back

Had the viral situation not gone up the left, I might be in Berlin about now. But I'm not. Here instead are some beers from that part of the world that I drank on happier days some months back.

The brewery is Berlin-based BRLO so where better to start than with a Berliner weisse. Goosebumps is far from traditional, however, with an addition of gooseberries and some Azacca and Hallertau Blanc hops. It's a silvery yellow in the glass, hazy with a topping of fine white mousse. The flinty dryness of its sour culture is all the aroma brings us, while the texture is quite full for 4% ABV with a little hard-candy stickiness. I'm blaming that on the gooseberry syrup, though it doesn't taste like actual gooseberries, merely a pick-n-mix analogue of generic fruit. Azacca probably adds to that effect, though there's no sign of the juicy white grape I enjoy from Hallertau Blanc, nor is there any significant sourness. There's the dry graininess of mainstream Berliner weisse, but no sour bite to lift it. The stickiness means it's not even very refreshing. It's a poor effort, I think, going all out for daring novelty but without giving proper consideration to how it would all hold together. I would be a lot more forgiving of that if it only delivered some proper tartness with it.

So I wasn't hoping for much from the second Berliner weisse: Berlin Jam, not with a name like that. This one, also 4% ABV, poured like a smoothie, resulting in an opaque pink emulsion in the glass. The "wild berries" mentioned on the can are blackberry, blueberry, elderberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant -- a busy mix. The blackberry and blackcurrant are most obvious in the aroma though it's sweeter to taste, with the blueberry and elderberry loudest here. It's not completely sweet or jammy, but nor is there much sourness. Like the previous beer there's only a mild dryness at the centre, making something which should be a flavour bomb in one direction or another into a rather plain affair. I think I'd prefer if this were a sugary mess, and I hate sugary messes. Just let me feel something! I really thought BRLO would have done better in this space. Good thing they make other kinds of beer too.

Switching styles but staying sour, German and 4% ABV, next it's White Peach Gose. This has a beautifully soft texture but I think they've overdone the syrup a little. It's not actually sour, for one thing. The aroma has a genuine gose herbal quality but on tasting it's a concentrated peach nectar, sticky and quite cloying. A glance at the ingredients show that for some unfathomable reason they've included lactose as well. Why? The clean and quenching quality one comes to gose for is understandably absent. I mean, it tastes of white peach, so if that's your sole requirement then here's your beer. For me, it's too much of a candied concoction and a further damning indictment of lactose, should one be required.

"Gurkenpüree" is the magic ingredient on Cucumber Quench. I had to go to the internet to find out this is lager: presumably German labelling laws forbid them from calling it one directly. It doesn't even say it's a beer. It does look properly lager-like in the glass, yellow, foamy, and with a misting of kellerish haze. The aroma is crisp and the texture soft. Guessing blind I would likely have decided it's some sort of wheat ale. The cucumber concentrate is used judiciously and imparts only a mild, and pleasant, green tang; otherwise it's sweet and spongecakey, like a Helles. A noble hop bitterness which appears briefly in the finish is a nod to its base. At only 4.2% ABV it lives up to the "quench" part of the name, being very gluggable and refreshing. This is one of those beers where it looks like the brewer has done something silly but it absolutely worked. Take that, Reinheitsgebot.

The strongest beer of today's six is a whopping 4.9% ABV and it's another pale lager, called Happy Pils. The brewery has decided it's "new age", I guess because it uses Citra, Herkules and Hüll Melon rather than anything more traditional. It looks traditional -- clear and golden -- but it smells of candy and perfume rather than grass and wax. So it goes for the flavour also. The base is clean and nicely crisp, but the hop flavour on top is much more like you'd find in a pale ale of the Anglo-American variety. Parma Violets, lemon drops and lime cordial all presented themselves to my palate. The sweetness hangs about as well, not allowing the beer to finish cleanly. I can understand how a brewer in Germany wouldn't want to make just another pilsner like everyone else, but this isn't an upgrade. There's a stickiness, more from the flavour than the texture, which doesn't sit well. They may as well have brewed a pale ale and been done with it.

Sheer completism made me buy this last one: the non-alcoholic pale ale, Naked. Citra, Lemondrop and Mandarina Bavaria is a solid-looking hop lineup, and the beer looks well: a slightly hazy sunset orange with excellent head retention. A tangy orange aroma starts it off well and there's a pleasant interaction of malt sweetness with the fruity hops, creating a creamy ice-lolly effect: vanilla meeting satsuma. A rounded and fluffy texture really adds to the effect. A mild lemon bitterness helps balance proceedings. One wouldn't mistake it for a full-strength beer: it still has that aspirin tang often found in the non-alcoholic variety, but it's pleasant drinking overall and does well at hitting the spots pale ale needs to, being both flavoursome and refreshing. This was worth a go.

Despite a couple of highlights I consider this a poor show from BRLO, and I'm particularly disappointed with the Berliners' Berliners. Still they seem like a busy bunch so perhaps this lot isn't properly representative. Surely they have something actually sour in the repertoire?