Look, they've not gone as hard as they did with their series of stouts for 2021 – which you can read about here – but, clearly, Fury & Son aren't the sorts to just do things once when it comes to one-offs. If the world of dark chocolate and roast isn't for you, maybe souped up fruit sours are more your thing?
Imperial sours feel like an area fraught with danger – will the sour side be allowed to become overbearing, or will the desire to boost booze result in something overly sweet and sticky? Thankfully, in the case of Mango Imperial Sour, the answer to both questions is no. Mango is a fruit that can go in many directions in beer, but in this relatively fleet-footed 7 percenter there's none of the pongy or overly weighty character you can sometimes find; instead there's a lightly sparkling acidity accompanying the fruit sweetness in a beer that's not particularly sour, but more refreshing – like a 3pm beach bar cocktail – than such a beer deserves to be.
Its companion piece, Passion Fruit & Guava Sour Imperial Sour, bursts from the glass like Passiona blended with tropical brekkie juice, enticing you in. Again, it's not sour as such, and, with the purée like fruits masking much in the way of sparkle, not as sprightly as the Mango. If that was a refreshing beach bar cocktail, this is the fruit punch served by the ladle.
James Smith
- Style
- Imperial Fruit Sours
- ABV
- Both 7.0%
