What's the catch?

I've long suspected that Omnipollo is more of an elaborate practical joke than a beer company. Today's offerings help prove my point. They're not kerr-azy concoctions of dessert and fruits; they're far weirder than that.

The first is a Mexican-style lager, clear glass longneck and all. Only the arty and uninformative label lets you know who's behind it. Luz has surprisingly good head retention for something presumably intended to be necked from the bottle. It still smells skunked though: a good recipe will only take you so far when the bottle is clear. That doesn't wreck the flavour however, and the beer is surprisingly tasty, with a gentle tropical fruit buzz on a full-bodied base, not too different from a pale ale. Which means I should probably fault it on stylistic grounds: it's not bland or corny the way mass-market Mexican lager is; nor amber and malt-forward in the Austro-Mexican fashion. They've played a trick on me but I don't mind at all.

What's as unlikely as Mexican lager? How about an alcohol-free beer? Konx is a pale ale, with a non-intoxicating 0.3% of alcohol. It is indeed very pale, a sickly yellow colour, hazy with a hint of green about it. They've been clever with the hops here, using a lemon/lime variety to help cover the inherent worty sweetness that these tend to have. The result still tastes like a soft drink -- posh lemonade in particular -- but the hops are real and add a certain sense of beeriness, as does the soft effervescent mouthfeel. As ever, I wouldn't consider swapping a real beer for this, but it's far from unpleasant with none of the usual non-alcoholic traps.

Buy your non-alcoholic beer and longneck Mexican-style lager from Omnipollo, is the lesson from these. I didn't think I'd be typing that today.