For the past few years, two very South Australian businesses have worked together on a unique collaboration to celebrate a very special occasion: FruChocs Appreciation Day*. For those asking: "What on earth are FruChocs? And ahy do they warrant their own day?", they are little morsels of milk chocolate surrounding the Fru – dried apricot and peach. The collaborators here are lolly-as-beer maestros Big Shed and Menz, with elements of the FruChoc used in the brewing process. Prior to 2022, this has generally taken the form of a stout, but this time around we have a 6.2 percent ABV peach and apricot smoothie sour.
This one pours thick, just like a hefty milkshake would, perhaps with a very fine pulpiness from the fruit purée. It takes on a deep apricot orange in colour and is 100 percent opaque. The juicy fruit is the main event, with the apricot more pronounced than the peach, while there's some sweetness throughout and a moderate sourness balancing all that sweet, pulpy juice.
Pair with a big ol' block of milk chocolate and you have the Menz FruChocs experience.
Matt King
*If you're wondering why this year's release has missed FruChocs Appreciation Day, there was a re-fermentation issue with the first batch so it's out for a festive frolic instead.
Published December 18, 2022 2022-12-18 00:00:00
