White-collar beers

Oooh, don't these look posh, in their slim cans, their understated artwork and *gasp* gold-coloured pull tabs. Brewski is out to impress. I'm honour-bound to say it's what's inside the can that counts, but the kerb appeal here is significant.

Taking them in order of strength, we begin at 4% ABV and American Pie. They've described this as a Berliner weisse with blackcurrant, raspberry and vanilla, placing it close to "pastry sour" in style, and presumably aiming for that fanbase with the name. In the glass it's an opaque shade of maroon, losing its head in no time. Of all the ingredients it's the vanilla which dominates the aroma, turning it a bit sickly from the get-go. By contrast, the flavour opens with a tang of sourness: the plain kind that's a hallmark of mass-produced Berliner weisse, not the good stuff. I thought I'd got off lightly but the sweetness had other ideas, coming out of the shadows after a few seconds and spreading a dessertish mix of jelly, cream and pastry. The aftertaste lasts for ages and gives the impression of a luridly-coloured children's breakfast cereal that's likely outlawed in most European countries. This offers only a brief promise of quality but is otherwise completely daft and nothing like as classy as the packaging implies. Shame.

OK, clean sheet, fresh start. A porter is next. Feliz Cedro is 4.7% ABV and has been aged on cedar. It's a murky dark brown and smells very dry and woody. I was hoping for some rich and warming resins from the wood but it's dry all the way through. The flavour begins on dark chocolate and seems about to tail off there when the spicy cedar kicks in, flashing briefly with peppercorns and incense. Too briefly, unfortunately: I would have liked either the base beer or the add-on to be doing more, but they're both a bit simplistic and their impact is short-lived. I liked what it does but I wanted a lot more of it, and in particular a fuller, rounder and sweeter beer overall. This is a little thin, and the taste is sparse as a result.

Last of the set is Passionate Beet. Berliner weisse with beetroot and passionfruit sounds like an unlikely combination but I'm willing to give it a go. It is, unsurprisingly, a pale red colour, with no head to speak of. The passionfruit takes ownership of the aroma, accompanied by a mild ginger or nutmeg spicing, though neither of those features in the ingredients. It's quite thickly textured, even a little syrupy, which perhaps shouldn't be surprising for 6% ABV, but it's one way in which it departs from the Berliner weisse style. The flavour is another: it's not even slightly sour, piling in the tropical sugar instead. The poor beet doesn't get a look-in either, its unmistakable earthy characteristic imperceptible to this drinker. Like the first one, this doesn't deliver on the promise of the classy packaging.

So I don't think any of them lived up to the enticing design of the labels. They're not bad beers, and all three are the sort of thing I know Brewski can do well. These particular examples each lacked something, however.