A pool party fantasy sounds a little bit contentious, it's just on the verge of being rude. Just like the beer in many ways, with its outrageous array of flavours.
White guava, passion fruit, lime and coconut are all big, bold flavours in this beer that is a collaboration with branding agency Ostecx Créative and Brazilian brewery Bierland. Not the most obvious of collaborations, but one that has resulted in one of the craziest beers I think i've ever drunk.
Sours like this that balance the big flavours so well really showcase the potential of the style, which can sometimes be flooded with simple, one-dimensional flavours that don't do much the convince new drinkers. This though, is a tour de force of the sour arena.
The aroma of the beer is almost mesmerising, with strong guava sweetness and tropical coconut scents helping to make it a really attractive beer that made my mouth water in anticipation.
The pour is light amber, with a thin, white head that vanishes almost as quickly as it's poured. The texture is smooth and light, with a little dryness to it that combats some of the fruity juiciness and helps to balance the flavour.
The flavour itself is very tropical as a whole, but the more you sip and savour the more specific flavours come out of it. There's a rich, sweet passion fruit coupled with a tart limey bitterness; later on in the profile there's an earthier coconut flavour that brings another dimension to the beer, with an overriding sweetness that makes any tart flavours quite short-lived.
The aftertaste is predominantly coconut, with a subtle fruitiness that is hard to place but really helps fight the slightly dry finish.
The can design, which I can only assume is the input from Ostecx Créative, is not something I would picture when picturing a pool party. That being said, the flowing colours blending together in waves give it an arty, pastel style aesthetic, which is certainly eye catching.
The colours match the kinds of flavours in the beer too, with lots of green shades and white shades to mirror what's in the beer. The logos of all three collaborators down the side marks it out as a joint effort, with the unusual font on the front of the can with the beer name makes it subtly obvious.
I'm always a fan of 500ml cans and Maltgarden regularly deliver them, Pool Party Fantasy being no exception. The size of the can gives it a good heft in the hand and provides more of a canvas for the required information about the beer and the usual stuff that needs to be on the back of beer cans.
Can't find this anywhere online, so you'll be relying on how good your local bottleshops are to track down this one. And it's worth tracking down, even if just to experience the chaos of flavours.
