Ice Cream Social
Magnify Brewing Company

Decanted from a 16 oz (473 ml) can into a same sized Willi Becher glass; acquired at the brewery 3 weeks ago.
A: Pours a cloudy, orange near amber with rose gold highlights, fast clearing, a one to two finger, white head, solid rim retention, but no lacing to speak of.
S: Lactic tartness and roasty. Aromas as advertised: milk chocolate, vanilla, strawberry flavor (based on the pip based bitterness, clearly the real thing).
T: Semisweet and sour. Flavor palate, again, as advertised: milk chocolate, vanilla, a strong strawberry presence; basically the components of a Neapolitan Ice Cream container. Bitterness is not much in evidence at first, but as the other flavors resolve, that strawberry pip tang is all that remains. Sour, bitter, and chocolate aftertastes.
M: Medium bodied with low to moderate carbonation.
O: I definitely see the concept behind this and wholehearted approve of "messing around" with flavor. Unfortunately, the components of a Neapolitan Ice Cream box, wild yeast, and beer are a chimera that was never meant to exist in nature (or experimentally); that sad fact has been demonstrated very clearly here. Dare I say, this is a veritable Frankenstein monster, perhaps well intentioned at heart, but terrible for the senses to behold. I applaud the effort, the outcome, not so much.

Picked this up a few weeks back a I haven't had a beer from Magnify in ages, aside from their take of the All Together. When I saw this come out again, I wanted to give it a go because it was nice like their usual fare of hazy New England IPA's. While I"m not a huge Wild or Sour drinker, I enjoyed this and thought it lived up to it's billing, as this made for a wonderful dessert beer!

Interesting pour to this as this beer looked like it had all three flavors in it's appearance, as it was somewhat dark for this style up-front but had hints of pink strawberry in the sediment that I poured out from the bottom upon emptying the can. Plenty of head to this as it was colored a bit oddly because of what I swirled out, as the lacing left behind was mostly in the form of a thin ring near the top of my pint glass. Loads of strawberry puree and patch and lactose in the nose as the taste opened up to a full Neapolitan sweetness. The vanilla and cocoa were light, but present throughout, as the overall taste was quite sweet and a bit more earthy than I expected. This is not a sugar bomb or full of powder but the fruit and sweetness complemented each other nicely with the end result being a lightly tangy beer that had enough body without the carbonation to scrub the flavors away.

Quite a hidden alcoholic presence to this as the beer went down easily like a good dessert, as a slight slickness remained on my palate. Not too funky or rustic, this was more sour than wild as anything too "out there" would have killed this brew's appeal. Once in a while, it's nice to have something that's different, boundary-pushing, and pleasing as this easily fit all three of those characteristics. Glad I was able to give this a go!