Mango Dream
Stillwater Artisanal Ales

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CANQuest (tm) rambles & rumbles on with some selections from Stillwater Artisanal Ales today. It will be a strange admixture of styles, types & flavors, but variety is the spice of life. It should be interesting.

From the CAN: "Juicy dry-hopped Sour Ale with Mango".

What is hoppening to me?!? I actually rather enjoyed the previous Pineapple Fields & now I am delving into yet another AmeriCAN Wild Ale! Am I a glutton for punishment? Or is it simply my keeping an open mind? First, I must open the CAN by Crack!ing the vent! This went acCANding to plan so I CANtinued with a slow, gentle Glug into the awaiting glass. An in-glass swirl raised just under two fingers of fizzy, foamy, eggshell-white head with limited retention, quickly falling away to wisps. Color was an oh-so-slightly-hazy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5). Nose definitely smelled of mango with a slight tartness & now I was curious to see how it tasted. Mouthfeel was on the thin side, not watery, but not much past it, either. The taste was very pleasant! It was only lightly tart, at most, and it did not really interfere with the taste of the mango. In order to better quantify all of this, allow me to offer the following: Dry Cry was definitely sour & highly challenging, Pineapple Fields was quite tart & more rosemary than pineapple. This one was the least tart & easiest to drink. For the Sour/Tart crowd, it would probably barely register a blip on the radar. The finish was dry and the tartness was lip-smacking, but I found it very drinkable. Jeez-O, man, how to Rate this one?!? I especially struggle with the Ratings on styles that are outside of my wheelhouse, this one being among them. I CAN only hope that my Review is of some use.

im not sure whats up with all the sour ales from these guys lately, they just keep coming. to me this tastes like a well done kettle sour, piquant and tidy, lemony and bright, lactic and simple, well done and restrained compared to the no exit which i had shortly before this one. the mango is natural and sweet, and i do think it balances the souring tendencies here, juicy and ripe and about as real as it gets in beer, i really like this aspect of it, the beers best feature hands down. the hops are familiar in this overly dry hopped landscape, citra and mosaic and maybe something else, but those two for sure, in more or less equal parts, incredibly juicy in nose and taste and super compatible with the all the mango. this would be cool with some salt, like as a gose, i think the sourness resonates on that level and there is almost assuredly some wheat malt in the base, something like that would really accent the right parts of this and set it off, but i like it as it is, really fresh and summery and well made. the sour note is becoming a little monotonous across some of their beers, but in isolation its great. the mango makes this!

 

Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) can into a square pint glass; no production information.
A: Pours a golden amber color with robust head formation causing a greater than one inch, chiffon yellow head, but no retention or lacing.
S: Tart nose with strong mango and pineapple, giving way to pepperiness and then a strong sweaty and metallic note.
T: Sour and dry. Tropical (mango) and pitted (peach) fruits strongly evident. Resin and funky flavors a bit too much relative to rest. Bitter, yet sour, funky aftertaste.
M: Medium bodied with very low carbonation or persistence thereof. Savory, if anything.
O: I like well made sours and thought this could be a home run. It was not. Hops, in this setting, not a plus. Marginally drinkable. A for concept, F for canning and selling it when it tastes like this.

 

 

Hopped sours still don’t work for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an amazing sour. The smell is full of mango aromas with just a hint of those juicy hops. The taste is quite sour with plenty of mango fruit washing over the palate. It finishes with a small wash of those delicious hops. Like I said this is an amazing sour that retains the flavor of the hops used but with very little of the bitterness due to the dry hopped process. Would recommend, great beer.