The Good Drinks team has been casting its net far and wide as winter has turned to spring. They released a rather sprightly and refreshing apple cider under the Gage Roads banner and launched the low carb Rider Lite beer in clear glass bottles with an eye on a younger audience, as suggested by the brand's instant alliance with music festivals.
With Summer Spring, they're back in more familiar territory, at least for our audience: it's a fruited sour following in the footsteps of 2022's Cheeky Pash and 2021's Party Wave. Here, they've opted for pomegranate and guava, the winning combo as chosen by a public vote. Visually – at least inside the pink-purple-lilac cans – the fruit’s impact is minimal, while aromatically the souring lacto commands much of your attention, gently embellished by a floral perfume from the pomegranate and a grounding salinity.
The fruit appears to be lying in wait for Spring Suit to wash across your palate. Again, it does so with a subtlety more akin to earlier local takes on Berliner weisse and gose, back before brewers embarked on the purée arms race that led them into imperial smoothie territory; you could even argue this is a fightback against such largesse. There’s a musk-like character accompanying the tartness of the fruit too before that salinity returns to soften the landing, making for a fruited sour that doesn't go out of its way to hide any semblance of sourness.
James Smith
Published October 7, 2023 2023-10-07 00:00:00
