Ohh, those Russians

My exploration of beers from the eastern parts of Europe brings us all the way east to Russia today.

The first I picked solely for its batshit name: the 5.5% ABV Spicy is Jungle. Eh? This comes from Moscow's Black Cat brewery, in collaboration with St Petersburg contractor Time Bomb. They describe it as a "smoothie sour ale" and there's mango, guava, apricot and chilli in it. That's all unusual enough but I wasn't prepared for what happened when I poured it out. I use "soupy" as a descriptor for murky beers, but this is the first that looked like literal soup; carrot, I'd say: bile-coloured, extremely viscous and totally flat. Or at least at first. The bizarreness was a sudden reaction after a minute or two, frothing up a short-lived head. I've never seen anything like it. So you won't by surprised when I say it's not at all like a beer. It is like a smoothie, though, with a thick creaminess and a flavour indistinguishable from what you'd get if you zhuzhed some tinned apricots in a blender with a couple of tropical fruit slices and a generous spoonful of chilli powder. That last ingredient gives it quite a harsh and dry peppery finish, one that's not at all complementary with the sweet fruit beforehand. Overall this isn't unpleasant, but I wanted to drink a beer and this did not deliver that experience, which makes it an abject failure as a beer.

But let's continue with the weird anyway. AF Brew is a St Petersburg brewery I've met once before, abroad, and now they're here. This is another I picked because it looked so off-kilter, a pumpkin ale (Russia's first, they claim) called Redneck. In a marked contrast to the previous, it's a clear amber colour and seemed a little thin as it poured, for something that's 7% ABV. The aroma is very typical of pumpkin: lots of cinnamon, with a clove rock sweet side. The texture is light, but it's not unpleasantly watery, though that does mean the flavours are somewhat muted. That may be a good thing, depending on your standpoint as regards beers like this. What you get is very standard fare; a mish-mash of dull and indistinct spices, with nothing fresh, bright or distinctive. It might have wowed on launch in 2012 but I was quite quickly bored of it, and I don't even have much exposure to pumpkin beer. This one is only for those who desperately need another average-tasting pumpkin spice ale in their lives.

It's back to Black Cat for the finisher, and possible redemption. Snakepit is a sour IPA of 6.3% ABV with Citra and Mosaic, which all sounds pleasingly normal. In the glass it's a cloudy and pale shade of orange, and there's a distinct dry tartness in the aroma, though not so much of the hops. The flavour is mild, pleasingly so, though you don't get much of a bang for the strength. Instead it's refreshing, with a zingy citrus juice effect. The sourness isn't exactly pronounced, and it certainly isn't puckering, but it dovetails neatly with the hop zest. This adds up to delicious refreshment and a beer of understated and unfussy pleasure. Black Cat is back in my good books.

Leaving the pumpkin thingy aside as a poor choice, what's interesting is how meaningless the term "sour" has become, even when applied by the same brewery. Neither of the Black Cat beers were sour in the classical sense, nor had they much in common, but here we are. Tread cautiously.