We love drinking fruit beers in the garden on hot days, and last week, we went for a couple of weird ones.
First, a mango beer from Shongweni brewery in South Africa, courtesy of our local off license. It boasts about its secondary fermentation in the bottle, but tastes pretty dull — possibly the effect of being shipped halfway round the world and sitting in a warm shop for several months? We could taste a hint of fruit, but would struggle to pinpoint it as mango. Pity, as it sounded really interesting.
We’ve had a bottle of Melbourn Brothers’ Apricot beer in our cellar for way too long. Somehow we could never find the right occasion for this British-brewed, spontaneously-fermented fruit beer, especially when we learned it had been discontinued by the brewery. It just didn’t feel right to drink it without paying proper attention. So, we paid attention, and thought it was lovely. It smells wonderfully malty, and the intense apricot flavour when you sip it really knocks you back. It had a slightly acrid aftertaste, which is probably due to it sitting in our cellar for so long. What a pity it’s no longer made.
Jeff Pickthall likes it too. It certainly beats second-rate Belgian fruit beers like Floris.
