Going into it, I wanted to be the like one person who really liked the beer ... but it's just that bad.
I wonder if there was some extreme bottle variation with this one. Mine was slightly hazy but there was no particulate or floaties. I also got a good sized head. Not my favorite but I'm finishing my half.
I agree with the folks who didn't hate this, so perhaps the minority. Obviously a big, oaky tequila taste. Muted fruit flavors. It also has an undercurrent of mustiness or something that's hard to pinpoint, which feels like it's the off smell/flavor that some folks can't get past. I'm not sure I get a lot of "cream ale" character. As it warms up, the fruit became more prominent for me. I like the orange. I definitely wouldn't seek it out, but I'm not sad I tried it.
So you wanted extreme, you got extreme. A very unique brew. Amber in color. Nose is a bit unpleasant: tequila notes with a musty smell that isn't ideal. Mouthfeel is creamy with some orange. More citrus as it warms up. Not my favorite, but not bad.
While mine looked like algae in a swamp. An orange swamp, but a swamp nonetheless. I had a bit of this one and ended up dumping it. I didn't like the smell, look or flavour and couldn't shake the idea that something was wrong with the bottle since a lot of other people's seemed much clearer than this.
This was a big NOPE for me. It looked flat and like dirty water. I expected a cream ale to be lighter. The taste was off putting as well. Almost spicy to me. Still haven't even really dove into the box yet so I have a lot more to try.
It's a mess, but any beer aged in tequila barrels is high risk. Not a drain pour, but medicinal raisin cough syrup would be a relatively good descriptor. My recommendation would be for brewery to throw this in as 15-20% of barleywine recipe.
Some tips: Don't smell it (I actually didn't mind, but wife and daughter hated smell of it). Don't look at it (not as bad as some said, but not what you'd expect). Don't sip it (it brings out all the bad in it). Chug it (the much [5 sec] after taste is a nice pruny raisin). Whatever a cream ale is, I don't think this is it. Got no orange out of it (with imagination maybe). Not sure exactly what pomegranate in a beer is like but don't think I got much of that either. Another "Hey... it's supposed to be Extreme".
This was some weird shit, but I didn't hate it nearly as much as everyone else, it seems. Very boozy and sweet, but with a bit of fruity tang. In my review I likened it to a Strong Ale, which I think is fitting. Happy to have tried this strange train wreck 3.34/5 rDev +16% look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
Very interesting beer. It's my 4th out of the box. Liked the taste right out of the fridge as well as later. Funky, for sure. I'd drink it again
Hey, this doesn't taste like Genesee Cream Ale. Look: Really REALLY ugly. Dirty brown water with very thin head Smell: Immediately thought of leather and sweet pipe tobacco. I’m a fan of saisons, farmhouse ales and dank IPAs. It doesn’t fit into those categories but the wet basement, dank, moldy smell kind of reminds me of some of those. Got some woody smell I guess from the barrel. I thought rum but I guess it’s tequila. *Extra note: I didn't pick this out. My wife doesn't drink but she'll smell and take sips. As soon as she whiffed this, she ran to the kitchen and brought this back: It's dried shredded Japanese konbu. It's basically seaweed and in this form you can throw it on stuff as a condiment. We put it on rice (rarely) and have been using it on salad quite a bit these days. This form has some salt, soy sauce and a touch of sugar added. I didn't believe her at first but I took a whiff of it and then the beer and it actually was similar. It has a really pungent old cheese type smell to it. Definitely like something fermented. I can understand this being off-putting for a lot of people. I like it. Anyway, thought that was interesting. Taste: Sweet tobacco, candied orange, sticky with some hot alcohol. Feel: Medium body. Medium carbonation. Sticky. Overall: This was for Extreme Beer Fest 2022 and I have a few more to go but this was the most fun to drink so far. I really liked this beer. Like most all of these extreme beers it’s not an every day beer. I was pleasantly surprised by the leather and tobacco smell and flavor. I thought the sticky orange taste was satisfying and the heat from the alcohol lifted my spirits.
I mean it's extreme, Just tastes like a nasty tequila cocktail to me. Smells rancid. I feel like they may have sent these to get rid of them.
How does a brewery this big with a (former) very solid reputation put out something this flawed? Don't they care about their reputation? A big hot sweet boozy mess, but it's still drinkable. 3.14/5.
Liquid moldy oak and rotten fruit. Easily the worst commercially available beer I've come across. What's even worse is the Extreme Beer Box false advertising here, which I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned, at least that I've seen so far. The label "Tropical Sunrise" is not listed anywhere on the bottle. Further, I was expecting a beer "aged in tequila barrels", yet got one "aged in oak barrels". Okay, so maybe false advertising is over-dramatic, but it's at least poor documentation. On Untappd, Funky Buddha's "Imperial Cream Ale Aged in Oak With Pomegranate And Orange" is a distinct beer from "Tropical Sunrise". Badly done, all around.
Interesting. I got a much different color than many of the reviews and pictures here. Mine was pale amber (SRM=9?) and opaque (a little orange-ish)… sorry, I haven’t figured out how to post pictures from my phone in these comments. The bottle didn’t say Tequila barrel aged. It said oak aged. And the oak was prominent in the aroma and flavor. Weird, yes. But I rather liked it. Reading the previous comments now, I definitely get the Cocktail reference… like an Old Fashion. It was different… extreme.
Finally had a chance to open another one and the random number generator speaketh and... lo and behold, the most dreaded one. The one I would have ended up starting with if I didn't decide to leave it (mostly) to chance. I had this back on Sunday, had to go housesit, put it in my bag, and had a weird little party. So... brain still confused with this one, but I've got to say, I didn't... hate it? It was a slow sipper, but I wouldn't turn it down. It looks like apple cider and dirt, smells like the inside of a barrel. Tastes a bit syrupy, even medicinal, heavy on the alcohol, but maybe my brain was so confused it liked the citrus and tartness underneath that layer of tequila. It's not balanced at all. It is like a weird bar drink instead of a cream ale. Maybe it's not as surprising as it seems since I like sour flavors, but I would give this another try. You know, for the experiment. Not the ABV.
This was not as bad as I expected after reading the reviews. The smell is a bit medicinal/slight organic solvent odor (I am a chemist so this was the first thing that came to mind). However, the taste is reasonable with the pomegranate and orange coming through. I don't think I would pick up a four pack of this if came across it in a store.
Gotta say I was nervous trying this one with all the negative reviews in here on it. I must have gotten one of those “good” bottles because this beer was actually really good! Outside of the stouts and barleywine, this was my next favorite and I’m not a fan of tequila. The tequila flavor was subtle, the fruity notes were on point, and it was smooth for a 11.5 Abv beer. On the nose, the tequila hits you with a slight hint creaminess. Very unique! I’d buy this one to drink it again! My only complaint with this one is that it could have been a little better filtered. I don’t mind an unfiltered beer, but this had a lot of stuff at the bottom.
