Tiger By The Tail
Skaneateles Brewery

Taster at brewery. Clear, medium golden, skin of head, lacing. Prickly pear steers the aroma, fruity. Taste goes all in on the prickly pear, fruity, sweet. Not too much of the malt or hops can escape this. Dry, chalky finish

a hazy pale ale with a big fruit addition. Their printed menu said tangerine, the menu board said mango, so i assume they have done a couple of different versions of this one. in our case it was definitely mango, and quite an authentic expression of it too, thats the best part of this beer, which is otherwise a little heavy and less refined than i generally prefer in the style. its murky rust orange from the tap, dense and sort of drab looking once the short head fades out. it smells great through, whatever hops are here are very fresh, a light pineapple note could be from mosaic, but it compliments the fresh mango aspect really well. its impressive how natural the mango is in the flavor, lightly piney like it can sometimes be, sweet and juicy, very real. this is a notch or two maltier than is ideal for these flavors, some of the hops are lost to the grain a bit, and its additionally sweet with all the fruit. the fermentation is near invisible, the body isnt as heavy as it looks, and there is decent carbonation here to keep it summery and moving. if they could retain these flavors but clean the whole thing up a bit, lighten it, it would really drink better for summer. id like to try the tangerine edition of its just as vibrant as this one, really solid use of mango here and nice job fitting the hops to the fruit.