Fruited kettle sours are responsible for welcoming many into beer who wouldn’t have previous considered our glorious fermented, ever-expanding, carbonated realm. They serve up familiar flavours, often trigger nostalgia, come with mostly sensible ABVs, often in vividly clad cans, yet create limited brand loyalty. Most do what RTDs and hard seltzer do – vapid, fizzy fun, without bitterness.
Cheeky Monkey’s toe in the lightly acidic water was 2017’s Frosty Fruits, a previous Mane Liquor collab. It’s sold out debut under a scorching, 40 degree Fremantle BeerFest sun was proof that the beer culture was changing. And it did. Broadly thereafter, bitterness dropped, haze increased, almost in line with music trends, and now this beer – another Mane collab – and asks: "What if things went full fruit?"
Cheeky say: “Let’s go two to one.”
That’s 2,000 litres of beer with 1,000 litres of fruit. Or, 125ml of guava and blackcurrant per can.
Take a moment to read that again.
So, if you wondering what this beer tastes like, I’d really ask if you’d notice if this is a guava and blackcurrant sour beer. And, given a third of each can’s contents are guava and blackcurrant, I’d emphasise guava and blackcurrant. Got it?
Guy Southern
Published June 25, 2021 2021-06-25 00:00:00