Dessert Cruiser
Widowmaker Brewing

Dessert Cruiser is a fruited sour from Widowmaker which features banana, coconut, lime, vanilla, and lactose. Does that sound like a huge mess and a recipe for a "yikes" to you? Good, because it also did to me. I got this from my buddy who works there and definitely facepalmed when I looked at the label. I don't know if I've had a single beer with banana in it that was actually good and, honestly, I'm not sure if I've ever even had a beer with actual bananas used (I'm familiar with banana-type esters which are usually found in hefeweizen, et al). Hope this one is better than it seems like it'll be.

The pour was a bit overzealous, for sure; it immediately built up with a steadily-developing head of eggshell-white foam that climbed to the top of my glass and started overflowing when I took my eyes off it for a second or two. Either over-carbonated or refermented, I'm not sure, but this was quite an active pour to put it lightly. The color is a milky, absolutely-opaque yellow color, and I'm surprised by the nice head retention. I didn't think the foam that built up so quickly would actually stick around, but there's still a solid ring of foam here measuring about a single finger even after ten minutes in my glass.

The nose is like a banana cream pie with some elements of citrus popping up here and there. The slightly-musky banana element is softened by the coconut and additions of two kinds of sweetening agents, but the whole thing comes across quite decadent. I'm mostly worried that this will be overly-acidic and not taste or feel as creamy as it probably should, though that fear mostly derives from the intense pour that got me thinking some extra fermentation happened and more bacteria could be present than they might've wanted.

Surprisingly, though this is definitely fairly acidic, it does retain a bit of balance. The coconut is well-established on the palate, helping bring out some creamy, tropical flavors that meld well with the unusual/hard-to-describe aspects the banana provides. It's very difficult to compare this to a lot of other fruited dessert sours I've had because of this ingredient, but the fact that it comes across drinkable at all is a testament to their relative success with this recipe. The added citrus also feels like a smart addition that provides some additional complexity without being too prominent. Feel is heavy for a 7% sour, probably owing to the vanilla/lactose/coconut (plus the oats/wheat in the base; jeez, guys), but if you're up for a weird and somehow fairly-effective beer that is wholly-unlike many others in this particular style, you could do worse.