Mash Gang: Vault City: Only In Dreams (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Hazy dark strawberry color opaque body. Large reddened white tight bubbled head.
Nose: Strawberry. Kiwi. Lemon curd. Light greenery.
Body: Sour. Malt vinegar. Squeezed lime. Strawberry. Kiwi. Apples. Bitty mouthfeel.
Finish: Sour. Malt vinegar. Strawberry. Light chilli seed. Chipotle like smoke. Lemon curd.
Conclusion: I’m not super into this, but I am more into it than I was when I first poured it. So it is now clearing a low bar!
When I first poured I will admit this looked utterly lovely on the eye. On the nose it was pretty fruity, then when I got to sipping it had more a watered down malt vinegar presence which made up the main experience which was … not my kind of thing. There are a few fruit hints, but it felt very flat and empty. Not a good start, especially considering how fruity the aroma was – in the aroma there was such a range of fruit notes, including ones I knew where not used in making it, so the flat body was such a let down.
Over time it does get more fruity, with kind of kiwi coming from somewhere somehow, apple kind of fresh notes and of course, finally, we get that promised the lime and strawberry.
Like this it feels like a nice mixed fruit juice, with lots of bits you can feel in it, giving it a mouthfeel that really emphasises that. At this point only that watered down vinegar touch is there to hint at the call to a sour beer, with none of the complexity, attenuated character or other lovely characteristics that a sour beer can normally bring.
So, it feels kind of like a sub optimal and expensive fruit juicer mix, the only oddity is a bit of spiciness to it, but you could get that by just adding a drop of tobacco to your fruit juice. Not really worth the money – it has nothing there that just a good quality fruit juice could not do better and cheaper.
Background: So, Vault City tend to be pretty darn good with unusual sours, and Mash Gang , while more mixed, have a pretty good record with low abv beers. So a mash up between them to make a low abv odd sour is at least worth looking at I figured. I have to admit the shiny metallic can helped as well, it is pretty, if not the easiest to take pictures of so may not look as good in the pics here. Looking at the ingredients this is made with Strawberry, Lime, Chill and Vinegar. That last one I presume trying to get some of the sour wild yeast taste without the accompanied alcohol. According to the can this is the first in a six part collaboration series. Apparently this is trying to emulate a Strawberry and Jalapeno Margarita pickleback. I had to google pickleback, apparently this is when you chase the drink with a shot of pickle brine. Why they do not say. Self loathing? Then again I’m the one drinking this, so they got me on that one. Anyway, went back to the 90s with Space: Spiders as backing music for this. A bit of quirky 90s pop to go with a quirky low alcohol beer. This was another beer grabbed from Independent Spirit.
