TropiCannon Strawberry Banana IPA
Heavy Seas Beer

 

From the can, it pours a nice clear orangey golden color with a very nice off-white head that slowly reduces and leaves lacing. The nose gets a strawberry scent. The mouth gets a syrupy strawberry banana flavor that is exactly as advertised, but not pleasant to me.

Heavy Seas Beer "TropiCannon Strawberry Banana IPA"
12 fl. oz. can "22126 BEST BY 12/28/22" and sampled on 01/15/23
$21.99/12-pk TropiCannon variety case @ Javies Beverage, Phila., PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: I couldn't pass up the chance to try a strawberry & banana IPA but after sampling their piña colada IPA I'm starting to think it might have been a bad idea. Hopefully this will work better as it's just fruit. Well, technically coconut is a fruit too but you know what I mean. It's poured a mostly clear amber beneath a finger's width of white foam. It appears to be a little bit darker than the others that I've tasted so maybe I'm wrong in thinking that the base beer is the same for all of the TropiCannon IPAs, or perhaps it's due to the coloring of the flavorings that they've used. It smells something like strawberry but it's definitely artificial, candyish, and perfume-like. I'm guessing there's banana there as well, messing up the strawberry, but I don't really get it as banana. It reminds me of gummi candies, and oddly enough, cherry gummies. On to the taste then... not surprisingly it tastes like a gummi candy but there's also a bit of a medicinal, or at least perfume-like character to it as well. I'm quite surprised to be honest. I've tasted both the TropiCannon Citrus IPA and the Piña Colada version but I didn't find them overtly artificial like this one. I don't know that I can finish it and I'm only about a quarter of the way in. I do taste the banana here though. It's odd. It's very weird, and it's too chemical tasting for me. It finishes dry, medicinal, and bitter with a strawberry and cherry flavor lingering. It's also a little like an artificial sweetener, which is odd. What was that sweetener that everyone used to use back in the late 70's, Sweet'N Low? Yeah, it reminds me of that. I can't recommend this beer, and I'm flabbergasted that it's available year 'round; who's drinking this?
Review #8,514

Best by 1-30-22. 12oz can poured into a tulip.

Pours golden with nice clarity and transparency; fluffy and creamy white head that falls slowly leaving great thick retention and sticky frothy lacing.

The aromas smell exactly like strawberries and banana but in an artificial way. Some malts.

The flavors follow the nose. Strong strawberry and banana leading the way. Some fresh grass and herbs. There's honestly nothing else to really pick up on. Solid bitterness. Moderate sweetness. Malts do their thing. Finishes on the drier side. Alcohol basically goes unnoticed.

Mouthfeel is nice. It's medium-bodied with active carbonation. It's sharp, fluffy, creamy, and smooth.

This one has strong artificial strawberry and banana vibes. It's not horrible but it's not what most people are looking for in their IPAs.

Had on tap at Frisco Taphouse in Crofton. This beer bears no resemblance to Loose Cannon, or an IPA at all for that matter. It smells like sour strawberry banana yogurt and tastes like banana runts. Just awful. One of the worst beers I've ever had. What I don't understand is: Heavy Seas made a terrible beer; okay. That can happen when any brewery experiments. But then they decided to release it anyhow. Crazy that a well-established OG brewery would make that call.

So terrible!! This summer Clipper City Brewing Company (Heavy Seas) updated their TropiCannon pack to include two new flavors: Strawberry Banana and Melon IPAs. Strawberry Banana is atrocious! It smells like banana candy and strawberry yogurt as soon as you crack the can open. It's a bit darker than the typical TropiCannons, but I thought "hey, how bad could it be?" TERRIBLE. It tastes like medicine and the artificial aftertaste lingers in your mouth. Avoid this pack!