Pompelmocello IPA
Siren Craft Brew

Copenhagen 3/11 2023. 44 cl can from Meny, Rotunden, Hellerup. Colorful can in red and yellow in Siren’s usual design. Jackson Pollock have not lived in vain.

Pours unclear yellow with a mid-sized white head. Stable. Settles as 0,3 cm thick layer of foam covering the surface of the beer. Clinging to the sides of the glass. Substantial lacing.

Aroma is fairly intense with a floral yet tart odor. Sweet peach and flowerbed. Tart gooseberries, citrus and grapefruit. Whiff of white sugar.

Medium strong carbonation. Thin, watery, lively and tingling texture.

Flavor is medium intense but a bit watery. Light sweetness followed by a stronger tart sourness. Aftertaste is tart. Lingers shortly. Finish is rather dry.

Tart but a bit watery.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, from a 4-pack from my favourite LCBO at The Roundhouse Centre in nearby Windsor. My first beer from the Berkshire, UK brewery.

330 mL can from the LCBO; best before Feb 13 2025 and served slightly chilled.

Pours hazy and translucent, its pale golden yellow-hued body crowned with less than a finger of loose, bubbly white head that sizzles away within a minute or so. Some sparse, stringy lace is deposited in its wake, with a thin collar and some filmy suds lingering on the surface. Grapefruit on the nose, as well as some lactic funkiness; notes of woodsy, floral, piney hops and tropical fruits can also be discerned.

Fairly straightforward flavours - the grapefruit juice does most of the heavy lifting, supported by lactic acidity, lemon, floral hops and subtle tropical fruitiness. The lactose isn't potent enough to stand out within the flavour profile, but it's enough to dull the lactic sourness effectively, resulting in more of a tangy/tart sourness (which I prefer vs. a straight-up puckering soured IPA). Finishes with a flash of earthy, woodsy hops, with grapefruit lasting into the aftertaste. Medium in body, with assertive carbonation that remains crisp and prickly right down to the last few swigs. Pretty drinkable, and maybe even a little refreshing? For an IPA, at least.

Final Grade: 3.82, a B+. I liked Siren's Pompelmocello more than most sour IPAs... however, I tend to be a fan of most grapefruit beers, and even with that bias I *still* can't say I was super impressed with this one. It's competently brewed and tasty enough, but this brew's problem comes down to a lack of depth. The grapefruit and lactose help, but the hops fall short. I'll buy another can or two while it's available, as I do occasionally crave a sour IPA, and this is better than a lot of the local alternatives.

Hazy amber color with a thin head.
Mild sour aroma with notes of lemon sourness, white fruits, lactic acid and some grapefruit.
Funky flavor with notes of grapefruit, lactic acid, lemon and salt. Dry and sour aftertaste. IPA bitterness was in-between the predominant sourness.
Medium body with mild carbonation.
Interesting Sour IPA with predominant grapefruit and lactic acid notes. I wished hops would be more apparent.

330ml can served cold into a snifter. LCBO purchase. Review from notes

Appearance - Hazy pale golden brew with a small head on top.

Smell - Definitely some grapefruit, but I'm picking up lemon as well. A one dimensional note done well but not exceptionally well.

Taste - Medium bitterness with just lemon and grapefruit. Depth of flavor is a bit lacking. Not much else in the way here.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied, crisp fizziness is complimentary of the flavors. Semi-dry finish.

Overall - Ok IPA, I wanted to like it more than I did but perhaps the grapefruit and lemon combo just didn't quite work or needed something else to really bring out the best in the beer. Glad to have tried but won't be a repeat purchase.

400ml can.
L: Hazy, yellow/gold with a thin head that disappears quickly.
S: Sour grapefruit. A bit faint though.
T: Grapefruit juice plus lactic acid.
F: Dry and mouth-puckering.
O: It does what it says on the can: “juicy grapefruit sour”. Wish the Ekuanot, Bravo and Mosaic hops were more obvious though, rather than just grapefruit adjunct. Didn’t finish.

Canned in a big old tallboy crafty craft can and purchased from Sainsbury’s supermarket in Altrincham town centre
Pours a fairly clear golden body with big thick white head
Aroma is Haribo grapefruit
Flavour is cider vinegar & tangfastic

L: Light hazy lemon colour, some lacing
S: Spices, nettles, sherbet, grapefruit, sourness, rich orange
T: Lemon, lime, grapefruit, sherbert, cracker
F: Medium-bodied, sourness comes through at the back

O: 4.5

330 ml bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 6%. Slightly hazy pale straw colour, small white head of poor retention. Aroma of grapefruit, hints of pine and spruce. Light bodied for its strength. Dry and medium sour flavour with grapefruit notes.

 

440ml Can from Morrisons (£2.45):
Light & clear golden with a thin white lacing on top. It's sour/sweet on the nose with grapefruit mainly but it's a little weird; background hops & fruit feature with a sour taste coming through. There's not sweetness here but the grapefruit still dominates. The body was light & strongly carbonated but it was a little one-dimensional & strange at times.

 

 

 

Found this bottle in a random convenience store in Plattsburgh.
Hazy golden/orange liquid with a white head disappearing very fast, looks fizzy.

Nose is complex, grapefruit, citrus, citric acid, lactic acid. Taste is sourness, citrus, grapefruit bitterness with a creamy mouth-feel.

Medium carbonation. Wow! I’m very happy of my finding!

 

Treated as a sour ale, this was poured into a tulip. The appearance was a hazy burnt orange color with a thin white foamy head that dissipated at a nice pace. The aroma takes on some sweet grapefruit with a tang and a tingle to some soft sweet pulpy ruby red grapefruit. Nice developing sour to tart rind with some light bitter portions rolling in underneath. The flavor grips the tart with the tang and tingle and brings in the sweetness of the grapefruit. Super nice blended sweet and sour grapefruity and tangy aftertaste. Sticky sweet to sour finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a decent sessionability about it. Carbonation leans fairly light and refined. Pulpiness from the grapefruit hits appropriately. Overall, really nice grapefruit sour ale that comes across pretty authentic. I would have this again.

Siren Craft Brew called to me like a... siren? Yep, siren... with this Pompelmocello IPA due to its unique mix of grapefruit, sourness and lactose, yes lactose - in an IPA. I’ve done a few grapefruit infused brews now (of which BrewDog Elvis Juice was the best to my memory), however lactose in anything but a Milk Stout is new to me. What next: Milk IPA as a style? It does have a certain ring to it though. Trust the poms to throw out a random innovation like this, hopefully it works well because I do love adjuncts that give beers more body like lactose, oats and wheat... that makes me wonder if there’s a beer out there with all three of those, like some sort of a Tripel Karmeliet with lactose... well a man can dream right?

Poured from a 330ml bottle into a nonic pint.

A: Cloudy sunglow yellow body with a firm half centimetre chalk white head on top that dipped back to a nice lace blanket. Looks rather tasty and paler than I might have guessed, so yeah no real complaints here. 8/10.

S: What an expressive aroma! Right up front with grapefruit and potpourri... you might even say to the detriment of any other aroma if those fragrances weren’t so appealing. My only question is: Will it taste like potpourri? Because I tried tasting potpourri as a kid once (I know - the dumb things kids do) and it does not taste nice at all - try licking a bar of soap for comparison. 8/10.

T: Whilst the aroma smells sweet the flavour is straight-up sour pink grapefruit, with a tiny hint of honey malt sweetness, and a lonnng dry cracker finish. Almost undetected is a green hop bitterness in the aftertaste, but boy does that sourness come in spot on for tartness (borderline too sour for my palate). Very Berliner Weisse in flavour profile, the hops are struggling to come through (as does happen with citric-flavoured beers because hops usually have citric flavours already). 7/10.

M: Medium bodied with a thin but dense carbonation, and a touch of creaminess - but not as full bodied and creamy as most Milk Stouts I’ve had before. 8/10.

D: Lacking in complexity and especially one note with an overall sour slant (where is sweet/bitter and possibly the others: salty/umami). Overall it’s technically a well-made beer, and you can tell that from the very first sip, but I’m personally not wowed by beers that can hardly muster up two competing basic tastes (i.e. sweet/bitter/sour/salty/umami). That said the aroma was something unique, however I generally drink my beers. Nuff said. 7/10.

Food match: Not potpourri - notpourri! Or Honey glazed ham.

A 330ml bottle with a BB of Dec 2016, so it's a little out of date. Acquired ages ago from Trembling Madness in York. Described on the label as a sour grapefruit IPA with tons of grapefruit, extra lactose and hopped with Bravo, Enigma and Apollo.

A: Poured into a Duvel tulip. Bottle conditioned. A translucent orange-amber hue with fine haze and light carbonation. Produces a small head of creamy white foam that rapidly dissipates, leaving only a patchy surface layer.

S: Aroma of intense tart grapefruit, underpinned by fruity hops, a hint of pine resin, mild earthy yeast and faint malt. Citrus delicious.

T: Tastes of sour grapefruit juice expanded by fruity hops. Notes of citrus, mild leafiness, a hint of pine, earthy yeast and faint malt. The grapefruit is distinctly dominant. A subdued bitterness upon swallowing.

M: Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and astringent, with soft carbonation. Nice body; slightly puckering from the sourness. Aftertaste of tart grapefruit and earthy yeast.

O: Quite nice if you like grapefruit. A pretty good IPA that blends the fruit and hops well, but does come across as a tad one-dimensional. Looks OK but a better head would improve it. Aroma and flavour are fruity and pleasant. Body is OK but would benefit from being livelier. The lactose is not much in evidence. Goes down alright - strictly for grapefruit fans.