Berlin and beyond

Continuing my way through the 2022 Borefts Beer Festival, and today the map pins land on Germany and Croatia.

I've had a couple of beers from Berlin's Schneeeule at Hagstravaganza in recent years, but they've tended to be outré festival specials. Here they brought their core beers, which I've been curious to try. I began, then, with Marlene, their straight-up Berliner weisse, one of the few brewed properly with a Brettanomyces fermentation. It really does yield results, and while there's nothing startling about the 3.5% ABV or lemon biscuit aroma, the flavour has an extra depth of stonefruit while also being as effervescent and thirst-quenching as one might expect. It's a far cry from the basic kettle-soured product that tends to get the Berliner badge slapped on it by other breweries.

That had me back later for more and I tried Mariana next, the Schneeeule contribution to the Pink Boots Society project. It's another Berliner weisse, this time at 4.4% ABV, and dry hopped. It's a pale and Lilt-y yellow; a little sickly looking. The crisp biscuit thing returns in the foretaste, then after it comes a fascinating mix of peachy funky Brett with piney citrus hops and a sour burn on the finish. There's a little bit of a lemonade vibe; one of the classy homemade sorts with a sprig of something sticking out of the jug. Highly enjoyable.

Finally from them, a porter, sorta. Autobahn is heavily soured to the point where it tastes nothing like normal porter, and the garnet colouring is off-kilter too. There's the faintest trace of roast grain and chocolate but it may as well not be there; all the rest is tart and tangy, set on a light body at 4.5% ABV. This is much more like the Schneeeule beers I've tried before, and simply not as enjoyable as straight Berliner weisse.

We used to get beer from Freigeist of Cologne over here, and it was very welcome as they tended to produce interesting stuff. It's been gone a while now, however, and I was looking forward to getting reacquainted at Borefts.

Altes Aus Liebe certainly sounds interesting: a smoked Altbier. It's starts out sanely at 4.8% ABV with a medium brown appearance and a dry biscuit aroma. The good parts of dark lager are represented in the flavour, with the right amount of crisp roast. Where there should be a clean finish, however, the smoke butts rudely in, adding an acridity to the finish that doesn't do anything for me. I know little of the alchemy of smoked beer, but I'm sure it's possible to do a smoked Alt which integrates the smokiness rather than tacking it on so obtrusively.

We say goodbye to Germany with a Gute Nacht, Marie, an eisbock based on an imperial stout and 13% ABV. It's densely black and smells of soy-sauce autolysis and more smoke. Lots of roast arrives first, plus a pleasantly assertive hop bitterness. Once again, however, it goes up the left before the end, introducing an unpleasant twang of putty, smoked fish or iodine; a chemical characteristic that spoils it. Perhaps I picked badly or perhaps Freigeist is being overambitious with its recipes and processes.

Croatia was represented by guess who: yes, it's The Garden again, on a seemingly endless international festival circuit. The oddest thing on their menu was a Passion Fruit & Coffee Sour: not a combination of words I have seen before. It's 7.9% ABV but feels even heavier. I immediately twigged the sweet passionfruit, but the flavour behind it had me thinking first of crisps. It took a while for that to unfold into coffee roast. It's very strange having that alongside tropical fruit, but I can see why they did it and it genuinely does work, though perhaps this is one to file under "interesting" rather than "enjoyable drinking".

A plain West Coast Double IPA? Yes please. Garden's is 8.1% ABV and looks to be a clean and innocent pale gold but is actually another full and sticky bodied job. There's lots of residual sugar in here, bringing a kind of marmalade effect. The hops start out by playing up to the Seville orange thing but then take a turn for the bitter, becoming heavily resinous and herbal. It channels the old-school characteristics very well indeed: loud and brash, but with a charm and poise which renders such behaviour entirely forgivable. You get exactly what the name suggests.

A stout to finish on, and Garden's Imperial Blueberry & Vanilla Stout is rather a lightweight by the standards of this festival, at only 8.2% ABV. All the cool kids are in the double digits. I'd love to say it holds its own in the flavour department but it really doesn't, offering only vague chocolate cake and espresso to begin, and then a berry tartness which lacks any of the berries' actual taste. It's inoffensive but unexciting, and certainly doesn't stack up well against the neighbours' imperial stouts. Bit of a knife-to-a-gunfight situation.

We stay in southern Europe next as the explorations continue tomorrow.