Hungary for company

They're a gregarious lot at Budapest's Mad Scientist. Today's three beers are all collaborations with various other parties.Mad in Black is that unusual creature, a black pilsner, and has been brewed for the Fekete Zaj music festival. Traditional dark lager styles exist, but the brewery has chosen not to apply them here. In the glass, it's not really black, more of a chocolate brown. It looks a bit muddy and unsavoury with that. The aroma is mostly plainly crisp, like an ordinary pilsner, but with a little of the flowers and fruit I associate with the better sorts of black IPA. The flavour goes that way too. Here, the dark elements take the lead, mixing an almost acrid burnt grain quality with a herbal and floral hop side which is part pot pourri and part tarragon marinade. It's 5% ABV but feels heavier, which erodes the best part of any clean lager elements. Altogether, I don't think it quite works. The burnt side is too harsh and the hopping is gimmicky. It doesn't resemble a…