Dugges: Stillwater: The Tropic Thunder (Sweden: Sour Fruit Ale: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Cloudy yellow to lemon juice. Thin white dash of a head.
Nose: Peach to peach melba. Very fruity.
Body: Lightly tart. Peach. Apples. Slightly chalky. Mango, Gooseberry.
Finish: Apples and peach melba. Drying yet sweet. Mango juice. Gooseberry.
Conclusion: Man, it’s going to be hard to make this anything but a short set of notes. We are in tart alcoholic fruit juice territory again. So, first up – this is very fruity indeed. Predominantly with peach melba flavours, but with tarter apples and gooseberry at the edges, and some influence from the mango showing its head from time to time. While passion fruit is listed as being used in making this I didn’t really taste any present during my time with it.
The base is fairly light on the tartness, definitely there but just a refreshing character rather than anything harsh. Just a kind of mild gooseberry character, and a slight dryness from the acidity. It is also actually slightly chalky as well late on, so it manages to head out still feeling sweet from the fruit, but grounded quite dry in the texture.
So, those are the main elements – not the best sour I have had, and not too complex, but is is definitely the most peach melba styled though. On that I will also say the aroma for that is fantastic – if the entire beer was a big as the aroma, then, simple as it is in range, I would have no hesitation in recommending it. The rest of the beer, well it is solid, nothing too challenging, but it does feel like a drier backed alcohol fruit mix and not much more than that. Not bad in any way, definitely enjoyable with the slightly sharp fruit character – but nothing really stands out apart from the unusual fruit choice.
So, yeah, I made the notes manage to last this long but that is all I have to say. Peach melba fruit sour, slight chalk back. Ok, but not more than that.
Background: Another case where a new brewery to me caught my eye, at a sour beer with unusual fruit, and at sub 5% abv it seemed a interesting and easy one to slip into the tasting note list to have. Grabbed from Independent Spirit as is becoming slightly predictable these days. There is also a similar but lower abv version of this available called Tropic Folk – I was a tad confused – the description and fruit listed were identical, with only the abv changed. Then it was pointed out that in Sweden beers above a certain abv can only be sold in government shops, which despite my recent trip to Sweden I had forgotten. So I am presuming the lower abv one is so it can be sold in grocery stores in Sweden. Drunk while listening to Prodigy: Always outnumbered, Never outgunned. Not their best album, but one I haven’t listened to for a while.
