Reb Ale - Basil, Pineapple, & Grapefruit
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company

 

served from a cask at Suds of the South beerfest into a pint glass

This is Lazy Magnolia's Deep South Pale Ale, only cask-conditioned and refermented in the cask with grapefruits, pineapples, and basil.

Pours a honey yellow color, like a honey-lemon flavored Halls cough drop. It looks a bit gloopy in the glass. No head to speak of, and this being a cask there is no visible carbonation to speak of either.

The aroma is dominated by the extra stuff. This is mostly pineapple juice, to be fair. I like the smell of pineapple juice. But the underlying beer here is certainly obscured. Barely a whiff of the pale malts. Hops? Not really. The basil is nice, and there is grapefruit too. I wish that the fruits enhanced the hop aromas rather than completely overtaking them.

The taste is a lot like the nose, only there is a bigger presence of malt flavor. There's enough malt to provide a beery structure, but this is all about the pineapple and grapefruit flavors that come from the fruits themselves and not the beer. The basil provides a nice balancing note much in the same way that hops could. This is super drinkable. But as a beer? I might be scoring it too highly.

The carbonation level is fine for a cask beer. The thickness of the body is not to my liking though. It adds to the feeling that this is more juice than beer. Overall, this reminds me most of a beer cocktail. Like some pale ale was aerated to take away the carbonation and then added to a mix of grapefruit, pineapple, and basil (only thing missing is the rum). And that's how I would approach this should another cask come to Tuscaloosa: as a beer cocktail. Still, I'm glad that I got to try it.