POGlodyte
Fifth Hammer Brewing

17 May 2020 - Beer #96

Corona Day #66

Price: $6.99 at Milk & Hops Ramen Bar in Manhattan

Appearance: 3 - looks like a light lager. Quite pale and no head to speak of after a minute.

Nose: 4 - nothing too intense, but very pleasant notes of passion fruit and guava. No orange, which is good. I actually don't like when they add fruit that's already sour to a sour beer. Like I want to be able to tell that the brewer made it sour, not the citrus.

Taste: 4 - similar to the nose. Those fruit notes are there. It's very sour, but a bit short on flavor.

Mouth: 4 - tingly more than anything else. Finishes clean.

Overall: 4 - solid sour sipper for a Sunday night.

Salut!

 

 

 

A: Pours a murky almost milky medium golden honey in color with moderate amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and moderate bright yellow + orange + golden yellow colored highlights. The beer has a two finger tall dense sudsy foamy white head that slowly reduces to a large patch of very thin film covering the entire surface of the beer and a medium thick ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Slightly stronger than moderate aromas of juicy citrus/blood orange, tropical/guava, and tropical/passionfruit over the top of light to moderate aromas of slightly sour wheat malts with light to moderate aromas of lacto lemon citrus tartness.

T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of slightly sour wheat malts and minimal amounts of sweetness. That is followed by light to moderate flavors of lacto lemon citrus tartness. Finally there are just shy of strong flavors of citrus/blood orange, tropical/guava, and tropical/passionfruit with a light to moderate amount of juicy fruit sweetness. Light to moderate amounts of lingering tartness.

M: Slightly heavier than medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Moderate amounts of acidic prickliness.

O: Easy to drink with well hidden alcohol and drinks more like a juice cocktail than a beer. Very enjoyable with the lighter amounts of tartness and enough acidity to keep it interesting.

 

a nicely done kettle sour here with blood orange, guava, and passion fruit juices in it, really more like juice than beer, which does not detract from how enjoyable it is, its really tropical and summery and tasty, but there isnt a lot of beer character to it, in our opinion, in a general sense. like, i get some body and a light doughy thing from the wheat, and a clean citric tang from the lacto there on the front end, but this is really all about the fruit, juicy and natural as can be, but not as beery as i think it maybe should be, whatever that means right? the passion fruit for me is the most forward, but i taste all three fruits in here pretty clearly, and there is some sweetness from them along with a little tang from the passion fruit and acidity from the blood orange, which are highlighted well by the lacto souring. not overly sour, not enough to limit drinkability at all, but with a little bite that makes it refreshing. pulpy and fruity, tangy and quick, fuller feeling and round, a neat use of the fruit and a nice job with the bacterial part of the process. i still think there needs to be a generic sour beer category here on BA, as this isnt a berliner, but its probably the closest thing of the available style options when adding a beer...