Lemon Meringue
Evil Twin Brewing

 

 

 

 

Not good. It just wasn't good. Again, it wasn't what I wanted, nor something you want.

Tasted in a Rastal Teku glass from a one pint can on July 17, 2021.

 

OK, let's go there: it's a lemon-amber colored brew dispensed from a pint can into a clear glass liter mug. There's almost no head and even very little of the anticipated lemon aspect in the smell. There's some pleasing lemon character to the front of the taste, then it just gets muddled. As a liquid lemon meringue, this flat out fails. As a lemon fruited sour, it's no better than OK. It might be better if it were just a lemon fruited sour and left out the attempts at meringue.

16 oz can.

Pours a hazy yellow color with minimal head. Zero retention or lacing. Lots of sediment floating around eventually settles to the bottom. Looks like ass.

Aromas of lemon and vanilla with some faint doughy malt and marshmallow. Simple, but exactly what's advertised.

Flavor is the same. Lemon cream, roasted malts, vanilla and marshmallow.

Medium-light bodied with moderate carbonation. Has a nice bite, with a bone dry finish.

Overall, this is a simplistic, somewhat boring beer. But it comes exactly as advertised. It smells and tastes like lemon meringue pie. Granted it's not great pie, but still.

 

Part smoothie and part sour ale, Evil Twin is bringing both pastry lovers and sour pusses together over beer- a lemon meringue influenced ale that celebrates both lemon and vanilla.

Sufficiently named Lemon Meringue, the sour ale pours a light golden but subtly foggy austere. As its creamy white froth builds on the rim, a tantalizing scent of lemon and vanilla lead the way, a background aroma of musty citrus, white wine and cider peak through the initial scents. Starting modestly sweet, a light and bready maltiness frames the common sour ale taste of sourdough, taffy and vanilla wafers.

As the flavors roll along, the beer makes a quick transition to sourness, quickly getting away from anything malty. Brisk with lime, lemon, white grape, gooseberry, crabapple and passionfruit, the underlying sourness is tangy, racy and zesty. But the added lemons have those citrusy tart flavors lingering deeper into the session, eventually closing with a soothing vanilla balance and a hint of dry burlap.

Medium bodied, the beer's sourness keeps things light, but the vanilla gives the taste a roundness that prevents complete dryness or lightness. The beer sells its lemon meringue character very well to the delight of flavor seekers, but the vanilla seems to hamper dryness, crispness and cleanliness in a more refreshing mouthfeel.

 

 

 

this is the bomb, better than others i have had in this series, or that employ similar labeling, its phenomenal, unique and well done, almost creamy enough to have beaten egg in it. natural lemon is everywhere, marshmallow and vanilla too, which likely means lactose, but there is enough malt to this for it to still be just beery enough. its lemon driven but not real acidic, and i think whatever hops in here do a lot to both balance it but also make it even more modern, and the texture is tart and wheaty and whippy like it seems to intend to be, even a layer of milkfat texture on my tongue after each sip, i mean, i am fairly drunk right now, but it does coat my mouth in that way that makes me froth for more, and the aftertaste is true to the theme, even though it pushes cream cheese for a second, a curdled element, but like in a good way somehow. in the end i wish i was sharing this can but i am not going to stop short of drinking it all, its a super unique and well executed brew. now we can debate the value of this theme and say maybe they never should have been inspired to pursue this sort of brew, but its as well done as such a thing could be, and i love it. evil twin gives us all every reason to jump off the fan wagon these days, but its beers like this that keep us giddily riding!