If you are like me, you probably don’t drink enough sour beers. Brouwerij West can help get your tartness levels up with the flavors of mango and hibiscus in their new beer, Rock Awash.
Rock It
Primal
First off, this is the first canned wild / sour beer from the BarrelWorks brand of Firestone Walker and second this could be an emerging style trend. The sour flagship that tries to win back ground from the overly fruited dessert beers while staying traditional.
You can read more about the three aged beers that were blended into this one beer right HERE.
Mango Weekend
There was much internet gnashing of teeth when Anchor Brewing unveiled their new anchor design. I am still on the fence. I like the spare look but I do feel a sense of history lost. That being said, I do like this new addition to their line-up. The name is great and you really can’t go wrong without mango in a beer.
In the Quiver
Since we are in to-go mode now, I will ramp up highlighting cans that you should pick-up, like this collaboration from Ogopogo and North Park Beer. Sounds like a good one too, mango will soothe the panicked nerves as will the lactose.
Beachwood + Cascade
I usually blow through the onslaught of beer release calendars but I did catch one beer that seems to be a powerhouse collaboration to look for (though it will probably be expensive).
Beachwood heading north to Cascade to make a sour wheat ale with smoked malt. Oak aged with whole pineapple and mango. This could be like grilled fruit and it sounds very promising.
Invasive Species – 4 Beer Review
I prefer to think of the beer name as a derogative toward a certain coming sorta-president (check it Merriam-Webster) but this 4-pack is a smack to a certain brewery that landed in Long Beach in 2016 with all sorts of Sculpins.
Here are my capsule reviews of the four IPA’s
“Plain”
Getting grapefruit pith here. Dark yellow, orange in color. Coats the tongue. Getting done grain in the back too. Rye spice notes here too. At 7.1% this is a strong and not necessarily neutral base for the other beers to follow.
Grapefruit
Lots of ruby red in the aroma. I was worried that the original was too grapefruity to differentiate much but this does that. Little bit more sawdust type grain here. Not as much pith here but more of the juice bitterness.
Mango
Initial thought is sweeter but that is incorrect. Aroma is fresh cut mango. Seems lighter than the two previous beers. The fruit is forward until the last few sips when a hearty bitterness takes charge.
Habanero
Wow. This is spicy. I can feel my lips tingling from the spice which lingers on and awaits food to suck up the heat. This beer subdues the hops for habanero too much but on its own is a fine spice beer.
Featured Review – Mango Beatitude from Council Brewing
I have only vaguely heard about Council Brewing but the yellow of the label and the promise of mango lured me to try Beatitude Tart Saison.
Tart this one is. My first beer from Council pours a very light yellow saison looks more like a fruit soda than a beer. That sour nose is strong on this one. You can almost smell the acid on this one. There is a wheat taste underneath the tart that adds a dimension to a beer that could become one note because the mango, though present, doesn’t wrest control of the beer from the tart. At the back end the beer ends with a watery note plus a nutmeg/cinnamon hit that is there and gone very quickly.
Here is the brewery description, “Beatitude is the French word for bliss which is what we float away on whenever we enjoy this specially brewed beer. Although this Tart Saison is brewed in the historical Wallonian tradition of other low gravity, tart farmhouse ales, the magic happens when our house blend of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Saison yeast throw an out-of-this-world party in our fermenters. Aged on various fruits and bottled with precision and care – this yields a beer with a lacto forward nose, an intensely tart fruit flavor, a doughy complexity from our no-boil process, and takes the word “refreshing” to a whole new level.”