Power sour hour

Fruit-flavoured sour beer, as brewed by modern craft breweries, is not something I get very excited about. There are a lot of them out there, reflecting how easy they must be to produce in assorted varieties. I like sour beer to be sour and these are very often not sour at all. Nevertheless, my curiosity has been piqued by the sub-genre that Brazilian brewers have made their own: the Catharina sour. Reports from jaded old cynics like myself have been positive, so when a brewery closer to home slapped the label on one of theirs, I was straight out to buy it.

The brewery is Prizm in southern France and the beer is called Try A Philosophy, made with pineapple, lime, cocoa and passionfruit. It's a sizeable 6% ABV and a deep orange colour, reflecting the huge volume of thick gunk that came from the can late in the pour. The passionfruit and pineapple share the aroma equally, while the flavour opens with an immediate and distinct tartness, accentuated by a surprisingly attenuated body, not the pulpy smoothie I anticipated. Those tropical fruits add a sweetness that's just sufficient to balance the tang, though the lime gets a bit lost in it. I was wary of what to expect from cocoa pulp but needn't have worried: there's nothing in the taste profile that I can pin to that. Even though this looks like chunky carrot soup in the glass, it's clean, balanced and refreshing, with a lovely light tingle for carbonation. I would never have guessed the strength and could happily drink a couple of these in a row, given the opportunity. The Catharina sour cheerleading squad has a new member.

While I was pitching around for breweries trying sour styles from other countries, I found Polish brewer Stu Mostów's take on Berliner weisse: Remade, one which they've admitted varies from the basics by being double strength at 7.4% ABV and heavily hopped with New Zealand varieties. No head retention issues here: there's a thick and lasting pile of foam over the hazy pale orange body. Despite the lack of fruit the aroma is still quite tropical, with watermelon and mango notes. This time the alcohol does boost the body, making it full and rounded. The hop flavour is predominantly bitter -- grassy and a little vegetal -- and in combination this really makes it taste like a pale ale. I couldn't pick out any sourness, certainly not of the intensity I want from Berliner weisse. It's fine to drink, but it really doesn't meet the requirements of the specification. I wanted clean, sharp and fizzy, and this isn't really any of these, being heavy and hop-driven. Enjoyable sipping, but where's the sour?

Well this was educational. Catharina sour is fun, but you can't mess with Berliner weisse. Now we know.