One Drop and their fruit sours. Wowsers. It turns out when you put in almost 200g of fruit per litre of beer, it has a serious impact...
In terms of colour, the Strawberry Honeydew Sour presents a light copper orange, just a shade darker than apple juice, but with a hint of pink to set it apart; while that may sound like an unrealistically complicated colour, the metallic strip on the can captures it perfectly.
But it’s the aroma that’ll really blow you away - sweet and potent, like strawberry jelly crystals and Meloncello (yes that’s a thing - like Limoncello but with melon instead of lemon). If you’re in an area with bees, I wouldn’t be surprised if they all came over to have a sniff. Don’t expect that sweetness in the mouth, though; there it’s all about the sour, though melon and stewed strawberry flavours both come through clearly.
The Guava White Grape Gose is a more varied experience. It plays down the fruitiness and sourness a little, bringing in bitterness and saltiness for a broad array of flavours. Low carbonation allows gentle guava and Moscato to waft over the surface. The guava then brings its unique character of suggested sweetness and muted bitterness to play across the tongue, with the saltiness only entering the arena once your mouth has accustomed to the fruit.
If you were starting to wonder if One Drop focused on sours to the exclusion of all else, think again. Their New World IPA is their first IPA in cans, and it’s a belter. They describe it as “brewed like a West Coast but hopped like an East Coast”, and result is a multi-layered IPA. Aromas of ripe mango, pawpaw and orange lead into deeper flavours of resin, pine and earthiness, with zesty bitterness. Add a hint of smooth caramel, a touch of boozy warmth, and a tidy bitterness, and you can understand why One Drop felt the need for a bigger can (440ml) to hold it all in.
Mick Wust
Published November 28, 2019 2019-11-28 00:00:00
