No funny stuff

Today's selection is from Sakiškių Alus, a Lithuanian brewery which makes lots of off-kilter beers. Each of this lot was chosen purely on the grounds of its perceived strangeness. It's as good a reason as any.

How do you even approach something called Sour New England Vanilla Marshmallow IPA? Cautiously, I guess. It's orange and only slightly hazy, so doesn't look like a New England IPA and therefore can't be trying too hard to pretend be one. The head disappears quickly. Sourness is the main feature, beginning with a tartly citric aroma which unfolds on tasting into a clean and zesty mandarin and satsuma spritz. This is lightly carbonated and extremely refreshing, seeming less than its 5.5% ABV. Any masochist who actually wanted vanilla or marshmallow from it will be disappointed, but maybe they'll enjoy that. I found a beer that hits the main points of sour IPA rather well, even if it doesn't offer much by way of complexity. I'm glad I choose it.

Something slightly more orthodox follows: Cherry Red, another IPA, also 5.5% ABV, this time with cherry. Our own Hopfully were collaborating brewers on this. It's not really red in the glass, more a brownish amber, and this time there's lots of fizz, piling up the head and slowing down the pour. The flavour is broadly sweet, but don't ask me how much that's down to crystal malt and how much is fruit syrup: neither is particularly distinctive. The flavour is plain at first, a rather dull red ale with no real hop punch or fruit flavour. There is an interesting spiciness, however, which I'm guessing is somehow derived from the cherry. It doesn't keep the beer from being quite boring, but at least it gives it some level of character. I guess I should be happy it's not a sugary mess, but I don't really see the point of it.

Throwing fruit and herbs into sour beer is much more commonplace. The combination Pomegranate Mint is a new one on me, however. The label also says it's lemony, though there's no lemon in it. It does contain chokeberries, though, because why not? This is another fizzy one, making the pour a bit messy. Underneath the white froth it's a dark orange shade, and quite murky with it. This time the ABV is 4.7% so the lightness is fully appropriate. I looked forward to an invigorating sharpness from the flavour but it turned out a bit dull and flabby. The mint is there, but it's more like chewing gum than the real thing, lacking piquancy. The sourness is also low key, and I couldn't detect any pomegranate. I will award it some credit for not tasting like toothpaste, but it's also not far off it. I think the concept is sound but the execution isn't great: everything should be brighter and fresher-tasting, even allowing for the ten months it had been in the can.

All that didn't inspire confidence when I moved to the Gose with Raspberries. This is the lightest of the lot; only 3.5% ABV. It's pretty good, though. Of course, it's not much like a real gose -- dumping some salt in doesn't change that -- and raspberries are not a natural substitute for coriander. But it's beautifully tart and refreshing. The fruit which gives it its lurid red colour tastes like more than basic raspberry, adding in notes of cherry and actual pomegranate. While it's sweet and juicy at its very core, that's surrounded by a thick layer of sourness, biting in the foretaste and pinching the jaw on the way out, leaving a clean mineral residue, which I guess means the salt is performing its function after all. I don't know if the brewery has other versions of this but I think the recipe could be a good fit for all sorts of other fruit.

Sometimes the crazy recipes work, and sometimes they don't. Guesswork based on the description is pointless.