Order on the chaos

Zichovec Pivovar is one of those European breweries with a vast array of beers on sale in my neck of the woods, so I get to pick what looks interesting from their range. Here are three that caught my eye.

For starters, Sea Buckthorn and Ginger Gose. I'm not generally convinced by sea buckthorn as a beer ingredient; I don't think it does much. Ginger, though? And salt and juniper? Irresistible. I had no idea what it would look like, so was surprised to see it pouring opaque and orange from the half-litre can, like a glass of breakfast juice. There's a herbal bath-bomb spice to the aroma, as well as a suggestion of sourness. Only 4.6% ABV means it's light, and my word it's refreshing. What was meant to be a first sip cleared the top third of the glassful. Neither spice nor salt are domineering, but they're both present, and perfectly balanced. There's a gentle sparkle and a light kettle-sour tang on the end. Imagine Tangfastics or similar sour candy, but without the sugary gumminess, just all the zing. I still don't get what the sea buckthorn is contributing, but the salt and ginger are obvious without being overly loud, and I think I can taste the herbal bitterness of the juniper too. It's the combined effect that takes this beyond gimmick into a genuinely worthwhile recipe for a light summer beer which bears copying. Serve cold and quaff heartily.

Of course I had to include an IPA, and of course it was going to be the west-coast New Zealand-hopped one: Sauvin Attack. This was a day past its best-before when I drank it, but since that's only six months after packaging, I'm not too concerned. There's a little too much haze in this pale gold job, making me question its coastal credentials from the outset. The aroma is intact, though I will admit it may have been better when fresh. There's still plenty of flinty white wine and a softer layer of honeydew and kiwi fruit. 6.5% ABV should mean it's a good bit heavier than the last beer, and it does have extra density, but like the gose, it's maddeningly moreish, begging to be thrown back in one or two gulps. Again it's the balance of flavours that does it, tasting firmly and distinctly of tropical fruit, cool cut grass and a twist of citrus peel, but dovetailed together with a precision which means nothing is too dominant or lost in the mix. The carbonation is exactly enough to bring the flavours to life while avoiding making the beer gassy or sharply carbonic. I might question the style claim a bit. As well as the haze, it's softer and fruitier than west coast IPA should be by rights; the bitterness is dialled back and you can forget any caramel malt. Taxonomic quibbles aside, though, it's utterly delicious and shows off Nelson Sauvin brightly and cleanly, despite being less than completely fresh.

My working theory is that the brewery comes from a lager culture and probably employs mostly lager-trained brewers, so precision and top-end drinkability come as standard. So the next beer would be a challenge. Though our ABV remains at 6.5%, the gravity leaps from 14° to 18° for 13 Years of Innovation, so I was already expecting it to be sweet before I noticed there's vanilla in it. That's with coconut, black cherry and raspberry, so no surprise that it's purple. That summer fruit combination is front and centre in the aroma, all candy rather than real tart berries. Unsurprisingly, the texture is creaminess, and although it claims to be "double sour" it's barely sour at all. The vanilla isn't quite at ice cream levels, but it's not far off, and serves merely to accentuate the fruit sweetness rather than make the beer taste of actual vanilla. The raspberry presents as pink sauce, of course. You do get cherry, and there's coconut too. And yet... I've drank a fair few beers like this, from the central and eastern part of out fair continent, and this is one of the cleaner, crisper examples. It's sweet, but not sticky with it, and while it doesn't have the amazing drinkability of the other two, it could have been much, much worse, given the spec. That's a win.

They're all wins. I've come out of this sampling session with a new respect for the Zichovec hussle. I will be buying more of their wares before long; fresh ones too, following the recent branding update. It was remiss of me to not include a lager in this lot. That will be corrected next time, if I remember.