We should go

It's the last instalment from BXLBeerFest 2022, and you'll forgive me if there's a bit of a rush about these. Things to do, places to be.

The first pair there has Zichovec's Mosaic 12 pale ale on the left. This is unfashionably clear but all the better looking for it. 5.1% is the ABV and with a slightly acrid hard citrus aroma, tasting zesty and bitter, though clean with it. This isn't at all what I turn to soft and tropical Mosaic for, but I found its Citra/Simcoe cosplay quite delightful. When the initial acidity subsides there's a herbal medicine-cabinet vibe of lavender and bergamot, finishing up quickly and neatly. While not the beer I expected, it's a delight.

Next to it is a 15% imperial stout called Naked Kameradski from Flemish brewer 't Verzet. This has all the sweet flavours that come with the style, beginning innocently on rosewater and honeycomb, before passing through caramel and toffee, into sticky, heady Turkish coffee. I only had a sip but it was plenty. There's a real danger of rapid palate clogging with it. But there are people who like this. I know because I married one.

I love a gruit, and when I approached the Kemker stand that's that one I decided I wanted. (Those of  you paying attention may remember Kemker from my trip to Germany back in the spring.) It's called Venn and is brewed with bog myrtle, to 6% ABV. Deep orange in colour, there's a lovely summer fruit aroma. The flavour has a definite wild-fermentation tang to it, but also strawberry and blackberry for some carefree summer vibes. Everything is well balanced and integrated, honed and smoothed into a seamless package of sunny garden fun. Maybe the strength is a little too high, but maybe Nature doesn't care what I think of her work.

Another pale ale next, this one called Trail À Brett, from Sutton Brouërie in Quebec. It's hazy yellow in colour and has an unsettling flavour, mixing Brettanomyces' succulent and fruity side -- all mango and peach -- with a dry sawdust rasp. I genuinely don't know if the brewery meant it to taste like this or if the Brett went rogue, but either way it really didn't work for me.

I hoped for better from the same brewery's Imperial Brett Stout, a 10% ABV job. Once again the Brett isn't behaving normally but here it's less of a problem. The woody thing is back -- maybe it's a feature of the strain they use but it adds nothing positive. Luckily, the stout side is present and correct with lots of coffee roast and a pleasingly assertive bitterness. I got a sense of something properly old-fashioned and 19th-century from this, having tasted recreations of old recipes which turned out along these lines. It's thoroughly out of fashion at the moment and I think it's time more palates became attuned to it. Thanks to Sutton Brouërie for helping that along.

To the left of it there is one from England's Little Earth Project, their Elderflower & Gooseberry Sour. This hazy bronze fellow is only 4.8% ABV and piles in loads of fresh elderflower in the aroma, along with an enticing spike of geuze spice. We haven't had any of that today yet. It doesn't go completely down the lambic route on tasting, however, and there's metallic twang in the foretaste that I didn't care for. After that, it settles into being a fun and breezy summer cordial, the fruit and flowers mixing with a crisp edge of cool celery. I think it's built more for quaffing and refreshment than considered sipping, which is fine with me.

I've had too many disappointing Berliner weisses to get very enthused by them any more, but an actual German example, Orca Original, by Orca from Nuremberg, was very tasty. It uses the Schultheiss yeast strain, for reference, and is lightly lemony with a tiny tartness but is above all refreshing and clean. It doesn't pull any silly tricks, and neither is it soggy and grainy the way too much straight Berliner weisse is. This is the Goldilocks zone for the style and I recommend copying it, to anyone so inclined.

Another dark beer stands next to it: Pulsar, from the Hungarian Gravity brewery. I walked past the sign advertising this "smoked raspberry porter" several times during the session but only braved a glassful near the end. I wasn't expecting the dry and dusty paprika flavour, something which makes it taste genuinely Hungarian. There's raspberry candy too and a little milk chocolate around the edges, all wrapped up at 5.4% ABV. Yes, it's a novelty beer, but there's enough of proper porter about it to make it enjoyable too.

Gravity provides the last beer of the festival as well, a Scotch ale called Meteor. As is the way of these things, they felt it needed a smoked element and barrel aged it in Speyside casks. The result is 7% ABV, dark brown and a little thin given the specs. There's something of lager in its quick finish after the caramel and smoke subside, and none of the warmth I was hoping for. It's just as well I had all those rich imperial stouts before to give me the energy I needed to leave.

And leave I did. BXLBeerFest is a highly enjoyable festival, well run and extremely civilised. I commend it in particular to fans of all things wild and sour: it doesn't advertise as one of those festivals, but I gather it's what the organisers are into and is reflected in which brewers get invited. Admission is cheap though the beer is quite spendy, so it suits the fussy drinker, perusing the stands at a leisurely pace and only picking the beers they really want. Though if you do want to go random and just drink as many different things as possible, I personally recommend that approach. Either way, the festival is well worth putting on your radar.