Hungary four more

Picking a random country for beers of international interest, I ended up with Hungary, and four from the Horizont brewery. I was a bit more deliberate in selecting the styles, interested in what the brewey does with sour beer and lager.

While it was warm and sunny, I got stuck in to the fruity sour ones, beginning on Tropic Inferno. It looks like the sort of fruit "juice" that's really just minced fruit, and I was half expecting some chunks to block the can mouth. Settled in the glass, it's a luminous carrot-orange, and although there was fizz as it poured, there's no head. It smells like it looks: a mélange of tropical fruit, though there's a bit of sleight of hand there as only mango was used; the extra sweet complexity is via vanilla. A cheeky twist, hinted at in the name, is the use of chilli as well. How daring! I thought it was a busted flush at first, manifesting only as a vague pepperiness in the finish, but it builds nicely, becoming quite an assertive burn on the tongue and stomach by the final third of the small can. In front of that, it's just mango and more mango, thick and sweet and milkshake-like, not in the least bit sour. I think this may be a divisive beer and I'm not sure I liked it myself. The idea and execution are fun -- and innocent fun at only 4.5% ABV -- but at heart it's another fruit concoction that doesn't feel like actually drinking a beer. There are occasions for that, I guess. If you come to this for the fruit, beware of that chilli.

The next one is Currant Interest, which involves blackcurrant, redcurrant, and rye, for some reason. There are oats too, which is presumably why there's a some-way decent head over the purpley-pink opaque body. The blackcurrant in the aroma is extreme, bringing me directly back to undilute Ribena, something I haven't smelled in several decades. The flavour is very tart, which I reckon is the redcurrant more than the souring culture, assuming they've used one in this "Sour Series" beer. A hard vinegar tang is incongruously followed by a sort of soft milk chocolate sweetness, which doesn't complement it at all. And for all that weirdness, it tails off quickly, with nothing different or interesting happening in the middle or tail. This should have more going on, even if it's not much stronger than the previous one at 4.8% ABV. The only after-effect is a curdling in the stomach from all that intense acidity. 

OK, let's draw a line under the Sour Series and see if the normal beers I picked are any better. They should be: they're both pilsners.

CzechMate is a collaboration with Moravian brewery Mazák. I'm hoping from the name that some Saaz hops might have been involved too but the can doesn't say. It's slightly hazy, in that way that says unfiltered but not deliberately murked. There's a solid backbone of Saaz-y grass in the aroma, but quite a lot of fruit too: soft and fleshy, like melon and kiwi. There are elements of both aspects in the flavour, though neither is especially assertive. Ahead of the hopping, I noticed the lovely soft and smooth texture, something you rarely get when a non-Czech brewery takes on the style, nor in any lager at only 4% ABV. Perhaps the collaborators insisted on it, in which case I thank them. Back to the hops, and what was grass in the aroma turns a little more severe in the flavour, bringing a dry rasp that lasts to the finish. What malt-derived sweetness there may have been is thoroughly covered by that. The fruit side ramps up too, turning full-on citric, with quite an American lemon and grapefruit vibe, all fresh and zesty. Put together it works beautifully. It doesn't quite have the understated elegance of the best Czech and Czech-style pilsner but it's a highly enjoyable modernised take. A round of applause and on to the next one.

It's an interesting side-by-side, because Twisted Fantasy is a New Zealand (hopped) pilsner. Let's see if the actual New World can out new-world the last one. It looks identical, though is a measure stronger at 4.8% ABV. The aroma is nowhere near as assertive, but is pleasantly pear- and peach-like: fruit esters, but clean and subtle ones. That's pretty much how it continues in the flavour. The pear element gives it a modicum of crispness, though the bitterness is dialled back. This is New Zealand hopping in its cool tropical mode, and I get hints of pineapple and cantaloupe in the background. There's a little of the soft textural quality I got from the last one, though not as noticeable. I almost had to ask out loud "what about the bitterness?" There is bitterness, just about pinching the sides of the tongue, late in the finish. It's not disappointing though; it's just the design of the beer, putting all the fruit up front and leaving you to enjoy that. It's plenty. This is a lovely beer, though doesn't impress me quite as much as the previous one did. That was a slight craft twist on a classic design; this is modern craft all the way through, and that's OK: it's very well done.

I don't know if I have any conclusions to draw, other than any well-made pilsner has the easy beatings of most any fruit kettle-soured beer you care to name. But I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that. More Horizont anon, I'm sure.