Pine-Apple Sour
Al's of Hampden / Pizza Boy Brewing

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to nasty for sharing.

S - Tart, lemon, vinegar and lactic acid

T - Tart, lemon, lactic acid, and pineapple juice. Light funk and balsamic vinegar on the backend.

M - Tart and really dry.

O - Good and really tart sour with an interesting twist with the nice pineapple presence to it

 

 

 

 

 

32 oz. growler poured into a snifter.

Appearance - Deep murky orange. Medium white head. Settles to a small collar with no other surface foam.

Smell - Pineapple. Lots of acidity. Kinda monotonous but it does smell like a juicy pineapple.

Taste - And it's immensely sour. A variety of acids. Lactic primarily. Plenty of other sour flavors going on though. Pineapple. I really can't taste anything else.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied. Overly sour.

Overall - Well I can't taste anything beyond the sourness. I know some people will love this, but I just think it's too much.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to robieobie1 for the growler, it's nice to have a steady Pizza Boy hook-up. The Pine-apple Sour looks like pirate's gold that's been locked away in a chest for thousands of years; some darker shades of orange crown the edges; murky, but still translucent. Aggressive pours yield little head, a faint dusting that wastes no time vanishing into thin air.

Sour Patch kid caliber sour lactic acid notes out of the gate. I bring my face to the glass and the lashing of sourness buries any other immediate smells. Successive, deep inhales hold some more expansive aromas - pineapple fruit, lemon juice, and a dump-truck full of vinegar. The more my mind concentrates on vinegar, the more that's all I smell. It's like shoving your face into a bag of Lay's Salt & Vinegar chips, only with insane acidity.

I keep hearing that this is one of the most sour beers of all time. Naturally, with a claim like that, I'm a bit skeptical at first, especially given the relatively low sample size. The aroma is definitely sour and butt-puckeringly tart, but I've smelled things that involuntarily crinkled my face up a little more than this one.

First sip... canned pineapple juice straight to the dome, only with eminently more tartness. My saliva glands are making it rain as the pineapple and vinegar acidity runs down my throat and starts eating away at my stomach lining. Let's get this out of the way right now: this thing is tart. It's goddamn sour. But it's far from the most sour thing I've had, and I am absolutely okay with that.

Lots of lacto sour notes, more pineapple juice, lemon tartness, and an acidic finish with a faint hint of some cotton-y funk that I can't quite put my finger on, though I know something's there. It's not as bone-dry as you might expect a beer this sour to be, but my oral mucosa is definitely calling out for some hydration. Thin-medium bodied, lots of snappy carbonation.

Strange brew, really. I like how heavy the pineapple came through. Lots of brewers will have a lactic acidity that often gets wrongly attributed to "pineapple-like flavors", but no - this beer tasted like the pineapple slices you toss on your mom's overcooked ham slabs during the family Easter get together. I'd like to see if successive batches turn out a bit more refined, but this was pretty enjoyable for all relevant parties.

 

A buddy brought me back a growler of this beer recently. $24 for a 64oz fill, $8 for the glassware.

Appearance: Pours a semi-dull goldfish orange with a slightly brown tinge. Crown is 2 fingers, pineapple stained white, billowy, shows moderate retention and no lace.

Smell: Perhaps its the mental association playing tricks on me, but this pineapple sour smells more like a vinegar (acetobacter) soaked HAM to me than pineapple. WTF. As I let it warm, that quality seemed to go away a tiny bit and the pineapple essence became more noticeable.

Taste: Same as the nose but the vinegar quality is stronger, masking the ham quality a bit, the pineapple comes through more, a touch of lemon (brett?) is present, and the finish is a bit off putting. I would not call this super sour either. It is quite sour but not super sour. As the beer warmed up more I found the pineapple to be quite prominent in the flavor profile. That ham like quality disappeared, the nasty finish did as well, and the brett like lemon note more closely resembled acidic pineapple juice!

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is moderate and body is medium.

Overall: I'll be lucky if I can force myself to drink half of this growler since it's a sour. I wouldn't seek this one out again, but I'm still confident that it is possible to brew an awesome pineapple sour. I hope Terry tries again and nails it next time.