Tropic Like It’s Hot Pineapple Sour

 

A collab between Toronto’s People’s Pint Brewing Company and the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, Tropic Like It’s Hot Pineapple Sour is a 4.9% brew sold in 500mL bottles. Fifty cents from the sale of bottles of Tropic go to the Glad Day Lit Emergency Fund. It’s a clear rosy gold ale with a layer of white suds. According to the PP website, this is a "Catharina sour", which I had to look up--according to a helpful article on https://byo.com/, I learned that it's a Brazilian-style kettle sour with fruit.

Tropic has a tart, fruity aroma. The flavour, as one might surmise, is fruity and has a pineapple tendency, though a bit more sour than you’d want your eatin’ pineapple to be. The beer has next to no bitterness and it finishes quite abruptly.

I enjoyed my bottle of Tropic, but I’d have liked it still more if the pineapple flavour were a bit more pronounced and the zealous sourness we’re dialed back just a touch. Still, the beer was extremely refreshing and it made a lovely companion on a warm July evening.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

The Pineapple Incident

Gifted to me by the effortlessly radical MTT, The Pineapple Incident is a pineapple saison from Toronto’s Rainhard Brewing Co. A 5% ale, TPI comes in plain 355mL cans. It’s a lightly hazy, dull gold ale with a thin cover of white head.

TPI has a plenty yeasty scent, with (and this may surprise you) a whiff of piña. The flavour is fairly tart up front, with a mellow pineapple sweetness out back. In neither aroma nor taste is the pineapple more than a suggestion, which is my subtle jam.

The beer coulda been stronger and a bit more flavourful, but I liked it alright. Honestly, it’s a bit more citrus than it is pineapple, but it’s certainly a touch acidic.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

WHIP Piña Colada Smoothie IPA

WHIP Piña Colada Smoothie IPA, from Left Field Brewery, is a complicated little brew that reflects a moderately complicated pitching statistic. Like its cocktail namesake, it features pineapple, coconut, along with lactose, oats, wheat, vanilla yeast, to combine in a 6% concoction that is sold in 355mL cans.

A milky golden brew, WHIP glugs out of its aluminum cage with a thin off-white head. It has a coconut-driven nose accented with pineapple 

 sweetness. The flavour hits the piña colada pedigree ever more squarely, with sweet coconut and pineapple elements evident to even the most untested palate. Behind that, there is a light hoppiness evident at the finish.

Left Field’s Piña Colada Smoothie IPA delivered exactly what it promised, with a creamy mouthfeel and boatloads of Island flavours. This isn’t exactly a novelty beer, but it is definitely the kind of ale that I’d only reach for occasionally. Too sweet for business drinking, but definitely interesting, it’s a beer I liked, but won’t hurry out for a second. I was watching the Toronto Maple Leafs host the hated Boston Bruins when I reached for this can of ale, needing something Toronto-born to cheer on the Buds—something from one of Toronto’s elite breweries seemed like an appropriate choice, and even if it didn’t fuel the Leafs to victory, it left me satisfied. My only real beef is that I’d have liked a more boisterously bitter finish to balance the sweet front end.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Pineapple Uber Sour Beer

Pineapple Uber Sour Beer is a low alcohol, ultra low IBU effort that comes from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. This berlinerweisse is flavoured with piña. It’s a 3.9% brew with just 3 IBUs that comes in 500mL bottles.

Pineapple Uber is a hazy, almost milky pale yellow brew that pours with a persistent inch of white suds. The beer has a tangy and stimulating nose built around a sour pineapple vibe. The flavour moves from sour to sweet, but lingers at the former, only getting near the latter at the absolute finish. 

For a beer so low in alcohol it’d be hard pressed to ever make me stagger, there really is a staggering amount of flavour in this little sour. If you like pineapple and you dig sour beers, this quirky little wheated brew has a lot to offer.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Queen City Craft--Pineapple Sculpin

When I uncapped my 12 oz bottle of Pineapple Sculpin, an immediate aroma of pineapple juice washed over me. This brew, born and raised in San Diego, California, was nurtured to maturity by the stalwart folk at Ballast Point Brewing Company. Like their Grapefruit Sculpin, the pineapple variety is brewed with natural pineapple flavour. It's an IPA, and accordingly contains a nearly immodest 7% alcohol.

Lightly hazy and with a brassy orange hue, P.S. pours with a thinnish off-white foam. As already mentioned, its aroma bellows "pineapple!", but also pays some homage to bitterness as well. Before sampling this India pale ale, I was mildly concerned that it would over-emphasize the piña elements at the expense of hops and malt bricks and mortar; however, the taste proved to be enjoyable IPA first and flavoured ale second. In spite of the jumbo aroma, the ale itself wasn't over-sweet or cloying. Rather, it was pretty damned tasty. That this beer would benefit from a bit meatier front end is my only real note of critique.

I enjoyed the Grapefruit Sculpin as well, but grapefruit is a much more traditional IPA flavour than pineapple, and so requires less art to make things click. Pineapple is a bit more of a challenge, one the team at Ballast Point was up for.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.