Non-conformists

Czech brewery Zichovec didn't get the memo that high-variety craft beer is out and reliable-but-dull heritage beer is in. They're still churning out a vast array of different styles, with influences from all over. Today I have three of them.

First up, it's another of those purportedly Irish-style beers from a foreign brewery, a genre I find endlessly fascinating. This one is called The Irish Black, and is a stout, at 4.6% ABV. No nitrogen is involved but it still formed a very full head, with a dome and all. The aroma is plain-spoken but nicely roasty, with a pleasing dry charcoal buzz. That's there in the flavour, alongside a metallic tang of old-world hops, but there's an unwelcome sweet side too. It's a little like the caramel one finds in Czech dark lagers, but more intense without the lager cleanness, coming across here as almost saccharine. I wouldn't say it puts this beyond the style boundaries of Irish stout, but at the same time, it isn't a good one. It's just too severe, and needs softening, either with less bitterness or some element of chocolate malt. Still, it's nice that they gave it a go.

In the middle is Orange 'N Choco, and... I expected this one to be dark. "Orange sour with oranges, tonka beans and cocoa nibs" reads the description, and in the glass it's a thick, opaque, earwax-beige colour. 18° Plato makes it 6.5% ABV, and it feels appropriately heavy. Despite the juicy appearance, it smells fully chocolate-like: the dusty dry powder from a tub of just-opened drinking chocolate. That's quite a disconcerting sensation, but a fun one, all the same. The flavour begins with orange-juice acidity, then quickly flips to the drinking chocolate. The two contrasting features hang there for a moment or two before the big greasy tonka adds its cinnamon pastry warmth, as it always does. The sharpness -- which I took for part of the orange side but is presumably derived from a souring culture -- lands back in at the end and forms the bulk of the finish: a hard and flinty mineral effect, still holding plenty of citric acidity. It's all over the place, this, and while I liked it, I admit it's completely daft and will not suit those who prefer their beer to taste of beer. As a kerr-azy novelty brew, it works quite well, avoiding tasting cheaply gimmicky, succeeding at high-end gimmick instead. If that was the intention, fair play.

We go back to black with Coco Noir, an oatmeal imperial stout with coconut. Lots of carbonation in this one, resulting in a huge tan-coloured head and requiring two pours to get all of the can's contents into my glass. Said contents included some suspended floaty bits, somewhat ruining the look. Coconut doesn't mess about, and of course the beer smells strongly of it: the moist and fleshy sort, not dried. The texture is gorgeous, all silky-smooth despite all the bubbles, and I would never have guessed it's as strong as 9% ABV. The coconut in the foretaste is concentrated to the point of tasting almost like solvent, and then there's a softer background of fairly-dark chocolate and a rasp of dry roasted grain to finish. Amazingly for a strong novelty-ingredient beer, there's no aftertaste: the cleanliness of the finish is impressive, though I'm not sure it's entirely welcome; I like a big stout to be something that stays with me. It's a minor complaint, though, and this is excellent overall. It's fun, and possibly even balanced, with the various flavours respecting each other's boundaries well.

A lot of surprises in this set, and none of the beers were quite what I expected them to be. That's all part of the fun of craft beer, however. I'll miss it when its last vestiges finally die.