Tropic Vice - Tropical Fruit Ale
Dead Frog Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, what have we here? It's a golden ale with heaps of fruit flavour, served up in an understated but tasty manner. I'm pretty impressed with the Dead Froggies - this is a fruit beer that remembers its beer roots, delivers a full 5.00 ABV, and refreshes the tastebuds. Methinks this will be part of our regular summer rotation because it will appeal to both me and the Missus!

 

341ml bottle, the guest star of the current Dead Frog mixed-pack. A summery offering, infused with mango and passion fruit, apparently.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some layered tree branch lace around the glass as it quickly sinks out of sight.

It smells of pungent tropical fruit - mangoes, passion fruit, kiwi, and generic melon - bready pale malt, a touch of chalky vitamin, and gentle citrusy, leafy, and weedy hop bitters. The taste is more of the same - mixed exotic fruit (a stronger cantaloupe and ripe honeydew melon than the guest tropical notes), some semi-sweet bready and doughy pale malt, and more plain earthy, leafy, and domestic citrus-led hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite active in its palate-coddling frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, the guest and inherent fruitiness going a long way in helping out here. It finishes still sweet, by that sexy moderated sense of tropical fruit goodness.

Well, I gotta give Dead Frog due credit here - they ain't messing around with the guest ingredients, no sirree - lots of the proclaimed fruit essences kickin' it all over the place, while the base pale ale (I'm guessing, given only the 'golden ale' description, as well as the actually detectable hops) keeps things from going off of the proverbial rails. Worth checking out for some lazy seasonal indulgence, IMHO.

Pours a hazy yellow with a thin white head that quickly disappears leaving islands encircling the glass. Like the name suggests tropical fruits jump to the forefront; mango, passion fruit, citrus fruits and pale malts. Not much else. The taste has much of the same flavour notes and finishes with a lasting bitterness. The mouthfeel is on the light side with an active carbonation. Not a bad drink if not a bit on the watery side.