Nice try

English brewery Wild Beer Co. came up with this wheeze for the just-finished 2022 Six Nations rugby tournament: six collaborative beers produced with brewers from the competing countries. Of course I bought all six, and at a fiver a can they weren't cheap. I had every right to expect something special from each.

The Irish entry started me off, and Carlow Brewing was the guest on this. It's a red ale with coffee called Shoulder to Shoulder. It struck me as quite pale for a red, being more amber or even orange in hue. The head faded quickly on pouring, another blow to the visuals. Still, the aroma was good, showcasing the coffee as fresh and invigorating, with the summer fruit of a good red ale in the background. The roles reverse in the flavour, and it's a bang typical red ale first, with strawberry and a little cherry on a firm base of caramel malt. The coffee roast then dries it out, as does quite an aggressive carbonation. For all the fun going on in the flavour, the texture is a little thin, more so than I would expect at 4.9% ABV. I guess this, and the others, have been designed to be match-drinkable and not too distracting from the action on the pitch. Overall, I like this one: not too ambitious but still quite a distance from by-the-numbers red.

The hometown derby is with Manchester Union brewery, Wild in Union being the name. It's an amber lager and as such I was expecting it to be redder, but it's well within the colour parameters of a traditional continental example, the rose-gold of a bock, say. Its aroma is quite continental too: grassy noble hops and light toast. The dark malt is a little more pronounced in the flavour, bringing quite a cakey richness and even a little summer fruit. We're still in bock territory though, because there's a hefty dose of herb and cabbage looming in the background and kicking in after a second or two. Indeed there's a decent amount of heft in general for just 4.8% ABV. The overall picture is a clean, crisp and complex lager with an assertive hop bite and a nicely chewy consistency. Even if the appearance isn't what I thought it would be, I still wouldn't change anything.

Staying on lager, we move to Italy. Those guys have a better reputation for their hoppy lager than for their rugby skills, wha'? Anyway, this is Qui Ora, "citrus Italian pils", from Ora, an Italian-run brewery in London. No problems with the visuals here: it's a stunning bright gold with a gorgeous quiff of pure white foam. Even with my crap photography skills it looks like a 1920s advert. The hops get right to work in the aroma, no gentle lemony spritz but a full-on pith-and-wax bitterness. In the flavour that becomes more funk than fruit, a resinous weedy quality with fishy overtones. It's a bit much for me. The resin adds to the texture too, taking away any crispness. I am reminded that this sort of hop-forward pilsner, be it in the trendy Italian style or "India pale lager", rarely suits me. The clash of flavours in this one is a good example of why.

Representing France is La Chasse, a pale ale co-created by Piggy Brewing. This is lighter again at 4.6% ABV and a beautiful clear pale golden, looking almost like a pilsner. The aroma is bright and fresh with lots of zingy, zesty lemon plus a more herbal grassy kick. The hops dominate the flavour too, though are more serious and intense at first, with notes of pith and burnt plastic. That settles to a cheerier lemonade and pink grapefruit juice after a moment. The varieties aren't named but I wonder if Sorachi Ace or a relative was involved as there's a certain amount of coconut too. As with the previous beer, there's lots going on the flavour, but it's still an approachable quaffer, if a little on the fizzy side.

Wales next, and a collaboration with Polly's Brew Co. I think I may be the last beer geek on these islands to have never tried any of their beers. This is called Iechyd Da! (Welsh for "sláinte") and is a pale ale with mixed fermentation, or "mixed ferm pale ale" if you're in a hurry. It's 5% ABV and pale yellow with a wit-like haze. The aroma is beautifully tropical, showing pineapple in  particular, plus passionfruit and mango. The flavour is a little more serious, with significant pithy bitterness and flavours of lemon peel and lime rind. The farmhouse funk is not much more than a seasoning on top of this, but it's an enjoyable extra bit of character, softening a bitterness that might be harsh on a cleaner base. It's a modest sort of wild-fermented beer, of the kind that Wild Beer originally built its reputation on. Beginner level, but wholly enjoyable.

Bringing up the rear is Scotland, where Fierce Beer does the honours. Raging Storm is described, oddly, as a "session Scotch ale", eschewing the more traditional "very wee heavy". That means it's only 5% ABV, though still a handsome dark ruby. Perhaps it's the lower gravity which means it's the hops which are most present in the aroma, spicy and grassy over the top of raisin and plum. As I've now come to expect from these it's light-textured and easy-drinking. There's a certain cakey malt richness but lots of fizz too. The flavour balances autumnal fruit and nuts with a brighter and punchier citrus. It's a profile which left me wishing for something denser, stronger and with more malt character, which I'm sure wasn't the intention. The apparent overall aim of the project to create beers that don't require too much attention is fine for the likes of Irish red but isn't so compatible with Scotch ale.

While doing the Wild thing, a couple of others from there for inclusion today. 

Liripip is a table beer at 2.7% ABV. As one would expect, it's yellow and hazy in a grisette-saison sort of way and has a similar sort of lightly spiced thing going on. To the white pepper and nutmeg you may add a soft and luscious honeydew melon, nectarine and white plum affair, making for something both dazzlingly complex and down-the-hatch refreshing. An ice tea dryness complements the succulent fruit side beautifully. They've presented it in a 33cl can, but 75cl bottles would be wholly appropriate; serving size for one. This is a fun fusion of what Belgian and English beer do incredibly well and I could drink a lot of it. But we move on to...

Brett Brett 2021. This was sailing close to its best before date so was marked down. Dry-hopped or not, I figured there'd be nothing wrong with a less-than-fresh Brettanomyces-infused double IPA. It may even have improved while ageing. It's a bright and cheery pale orange colour, and hazy with it. There's a certain amount of funk in both the aroma and taste, but it's not strongly Brett-y. Rather, it's more the weedy resin you get from large amounts of American hops. The body is nicely weighty, as befits 8% ABV, and there's plenty of fun lemon candy at the centre of the flavour. Anyone looking for a multi-faceted sensory experience will be disappointed, but it's a decent double IPA and that's no bad thing.

Going back to the Six Nations six-pack, my only real quibble is with the price. Each can cost €5 and for that I expected something a bit more special. I get why they've gone for accessible and medium strength; I would just prefer that for a euro or two less. Maybe the overpriced beer is a way of making me feel like I'm at the stadium on match day.