Multicultural Munich

It's a return visit to the beers of Camba Bavaria, the Munich-based brewer of some very unMunich beers.

First up today, for instance, is a saison, called Summer Kiss. Despite the pink branding and modern predilections, it doesn't contain any fruit and indeed claims compliance with the Reinheitsgebot. Presumably the inclusion of oats means it's availing of the purity law's wide exemptions for warm-fermented beers. "Refreshing, dry, light and fruity" is the claim on the front of the can, and in the glass it's a pale white-gold shade, fairly solidly hazed over. The aroma is sweet, smelling of sticky apricot and nectarine, though promising some Belgian farmhouse spice too. It's quite thickly textured and the fizz is very restrained for a saison, the whole thing feeling more than its 4.8% ABV. So dry and light it is not, though I'll grant it fruity, tasting of succulent melon and peach, thanks in part to Citra but mostly to Nelson Sauvin. I think it still counts as refreshing too, slipping back without fuss. While it's not quite a perfect recreation of Belgian saison, it's close enough for me.

To follow, Chiemsee Pale, a pale ale very much in the American style: 5.3% ABV and hopped with Chinook, Simcoe and Centennial. For all that that's very traditional, it's a pale one, where I was expecting something more amber. The aroma doesn't give much away, just a very broad lemon and grapefruit kick. It follows that the flavour is quite plain. Yes, the very typically American citrus is there, but I think there's a lack of malt base to support it, so after an initial playful punch, it fades out very quickly. The foretaste is beautifully typical, the grapefruit joined by oilier lime and a dank and piney damp forest effect. But just as you start to enjoy it, there's the abrupt rugpull and it fades out to fizz and nothingness. I guess, as a mere pale ale, it's not meant to be a masterpiece of complexity, but a little more character would have been nice.

They're both decent, if unspectacular, beers. I'm sure I've said it before, but the brewery deserves credit for doing things a little differently in a city where diversity in beer is not a strong point.