Luminous 05
Great Notion Brewing

Drank halfway between IPA day and sour beer day.

16 oz can acclimated to 46°F and poured into a tulip glass.

Pours a hazy and beautiful slightly red coral color and produces a 3 finger foamy, barely pinkish white head, dissipating relatively quickly and leaving almost zero lacing.

Initial aroma is fruity, hoppy, and dank. I get mostly plemon and grapefruit juice, pith, and zest. It smells like the color it looks like, but likely only because I saw it before I smelled it. A little vanilla, and slightly floral, with all of these scents together, it doesn't smell like perfume, but I'm reminded a little of perfume. Smells a lot like a fruit juice. After agitating, a wall of dank hops, yeast, and funk is an experience.

Initial taste before swallowing is tart sour, lemon, and light passion fruit. After swallowing hops greet me first, dry bitter, with a wealth of grapefruit oil taste developing in the middle and lasting into the aftertaste, growing in strength. The hops are very piney, which I love, and somehow they feel dry and dank simultaneously. Quite honestly to my tastebuds it's a lot like drinking a hoppy and bitter grapefruit juice. I know I'm having a hard time moving past the grapefruit but it's quite strong. The flavors present are very good, but the tartness is harsh, if I'm honest, it's puckering and enamel eroding. I find no milk sugar, and no dragonfruit, unsurprising, as dragonfruit has zero taste.

Mouthfeel is thin but hazy/pulpy, again, like drinking bitter and hoppy, slightly diluted grapefruit juice.

Overall, the best word for this one is pungent, I don't mean that in a bad way. The flavors present may not be my favorite but for people who enjoy them they'd be excellent! In addition to the flavors being solid, I feel that the process must have been well executed, as everything seems to work together. It's so pretty too, I love the color. Lastly, just to get it off my chest, I honestly have no idea why something so expensive and entirely innocuous (dragonfruit) would be used in a combination of two very assertive styles, idk man.

I won't buy this particular one again. Sours that are citric acid sour, not dairy bacteria sour, which this was, are just not at all my thing, although I promise I didn't let that affect my scoring, and I'm glad i tried it. I will, however, recommend it to those who enjoy these tastes, and absolutely be buying more sour IPAs in the future, because I think the concept is fantastic, just seems like an excellent combination of styles and I'm sure there are some that I'd love.

 

 

 

16oz can; pours like fruit punch, red and turbid with a pink head...more sour than I expected...lemon, passion fruit, tart cherry, citric acid...some milk sugar, vanilla. Puckering with some mellow sweet creaminess.

Taster flight at Great Notion Alberta. Pours out the color of watermelon juice, hazy, fine thin head. Tropical fruity aroma with the sweetness enhanced by milkk sugar. Taste is tropical, sour, fruity, sweet, milky with a hint of vanilla.

 

Can poured into a Mountain Rambler Brewery pint glass

A: Pours slightly hazy pink orange with a fizzy pale pink head that quickly settles and leaves only a few spots of lacing.

S: Lactic tartness, mix of juicy citrus and tropical fruit, light vanilla, crackery malt, and a touch of sweetness.

T: Assertive lactic tartness, fruity, passion fruit, subtle dragon fruit, plus hints of pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, and apricot, faint floral notes, subtle vanilla, crackery malt, and just a touch of sweetness.

M: Medium body, lively carbonation, almost stingy acidity.

O: Took me a hot minute to be able to see past all the sour and see the IPA part of this. Neat idea, you don't see dragon fruit that often in beer, but I think if they could bring down the acidity a bit it would work even better.

 

Getting past the IPA portion of the labeled style, this deep reddish pink beer marries passion fruit tartness with hoppy grapefruit and floral notes, the caramel supplanted by lactose and vanilla sweetness, balanced by moderate pedio/lacto acidity. Wow, this is great.