The abundance of stonefruit in the shops may be ebbing, but there’s stonefruit aplenty in these two releases from Ballistic.
The first is the more obvious, as it actually contains peach. Peach Iced Tea Twang Sour isn’t your one-note Lipton Iced Tea from a bottle, but more of a homemade iced tea poured from a jug sitting on the lace tablecloth. It’s fragrant with peach and apricot blossom, but with that natural, freshly-harvested vibe, like when you buy a 10kg box of stonefruit at the farmer’s markets and there are still some twigs and leaves in there. The Ceylon tea is subtle, but gives a slight grippy feel as the tartness grabs at your tastebuds.
When it comes to the Trans-Tasman West Coast Double IPA, the fruit character comes from the classic hop domination of the Sleep When You’re Dead series. This banger brings together NSW malts with NZ hops, and it’s obvious there’s no shortage of either – there’s absolutely enough oomph here to punch through the head cold I was battling when I drank this.
First impressions were of sticky stonefruit and a touch of fresh cut grass, but this beer kept revealing more of itself. The malt gave a thickness in the mouth, straddling sweet and dry; an earthy dankness came through the fruit, like a sprout pushing through the earth to open up to the sun; the bitterness showed up late and made itself comfortable.
Mick Wust
Published March 7, 2022 2022-03-07 00:00:00
