Lemon Raspberry Wizard of Gose

 When eating gelato, my firm belief is that the top flavour combo is lemon and raspberry. It’s tart, fruity, refreshing, and perfect. So, when I saw that Bandit Brewery had a version of Wizard of Gose with lemon and raspberry, I was pretty jazzed. The 4.2% sour beer from Toronto comes in 355mL cans that feature a formal raccoon with red/yellow heterochromia.

This edition of WofG has a rose gold colour. It’s a hazy brew that pours with a sprinkling of white head. The beer has a briny aroma with a nice lemony note. The flavour is tart, with lots of lemon and a little tickle of raspberry.

If I’m being honest, I’d have liked this beer to have a bit more emphasis on raspberry, but that said, the flavour is nice and it definitely doesn’t taste artificial. Not a bad little gose.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Rage and Love Cream Soda Sour

A lurid pink potion, Rage and Love Cream Soda Sour is a 5.4% ale from the team at Toronto’s Rainhard Brewing Co. The beer, sold in 355mL cans, contains vanilla, as well as a “hit” of blackberry, sour cherry, and lychee—it isn’t immediately clear whether these are ingredients or flavour notes, though I suspect the former.

Through a modes off-white head, R&LCSS does indeed have a sweet, cream soda-esque nose, packed with vanilla notes and a touch of cherry. The flavour has a seriously rapid sweet-to-sour progression. The front end is vanilla sweet, but this is subsumed by a tart and fruity finish in a blink. The beer is only modestly sour, which makes it fairly approachable for the style.

This little sour ale is a quirky piece of work. It genuinely has cream soda elements, which are a bit divisive—for instance, I don’t really love that particular soda. However, the beer is pretty enjoyable, with modest sourness, an interesting cornucopia of fruit notes, and a brief sweetness.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.