Mando Sour
Atomic Beer

From the Boozebud Advent Calendar 2022, day 24. Drunk in January 2023.

L: Light, golden yellow. Relatively few, large bubbles speed up the glass. There's a thin cover of bright-white head.

S: Surprisingly, it doesn't smell like crusty bounty hunters, but instead clearly conjures up orange cordial or the Tang orange fruit juice drink we used to make in 1980s Australia out of a jar of powder. Also brings to mind orange vitamin C tablets. I'm not a fan of my beers smelling like cordial, but it's a mandarin-flavoured sour, so I've gotta give it its due.

T: Taste follows the nose, but is more mandarin than orange (hence the name, duh!). It's very tangy, very sherbety, very thirst quenching. My mouth is salivating after every mouthful. Again, I'm not a fan, but I've gotta give it its due.

M: As expected from a kettle sour, it's quite carbonated and prickly, and quite like a soft drink (soda), but, and I'm sounding like a broken record here, it perfectly fits the style and the flavour and aroma profile.

O: I don't particularly get fruited kettle sours. If I want something that tastes like an orange soft drink, I'll get an orange soft drink, and preferably a diet one at that. The sherbety body is what sets it apart from a soft drink (well, and the alcohol, of course!), but I'm not such a fan of the sherbety sensation in a beer that I'm going to actively seek it out. Still, and this grates me to say it, the beer does exactly what it should and I can't fault it for that.

Cheers!
#187