Slushy XL - Ice Cream Float
450 North Brewing Company

Cold sticky sweet, from my head to my feet, 450 North keeps delivering on the sweetest, fruitiest and creamiest sour ales and having the brain to wonder if its beer or if it’s the ice cream parlor.

Rusty mauve and heavily opaque, Slushy XL Ice Cream Float boats the soft serve varieties of blackberry, pineapple and vanilla ice creams that float a loose and patient froth. Juicy aromas of berry and tropical fruity come with sweet cream and cider-like tanginess to the nose. Heavy cream, condensed fruit juice and a pastry-like thickness frames the early taste.

As the playfully tart ale floods the middle palate with fruit sweetness, pastry tarte, pie filling and fruit glazes stick to the mouth in decidedly cloying fashion. A brief reprieve of acidity brings about hints of cider and white wine to give the session a glimmer of drinkability. Trailing into a sweet, tart and fruity finish, the session is wrapped in vanilla and condensed milk.

Full bodied, plush and cloying from start to finish, the ale is quite tasty when wanting a true alcoholic smoothie. But if beer is what’s on the mind, then this session seems like child’s play.

Pours a dark mauve-maroon color with tons of floaters at first hidden by the darkness, but evident when you tilt the glass. Similarly-colored, super airy head dissipates quickly. The only lacing-like residue — which is very thin — is from the scuzziness of the floaters, not the head.

Tart blackberry and sour cream icing in the nose.

The taste is better: sweet mixed berry, some pineapple, cherry, and ice cream more than sour cream.

Definitely thick bodied, but not the thickest ever. Lightly prickly carbonation.

No longer the style for me, but this is one of the better-tasting ones, especially for 450.