Party in my mouth

Today marks nineteen years since this blog got underway, and my al fresco celebration beer is the new special edition from Rye River: Piñata Party. It's a daring recipe, created in collaboration with Cervecería Morenos in México City, and is a sour ale with pineapple, lime, chilli and smoke. How does that play out?

It looks innocent enough, a light and hazy shade of yellow, suggesting a beer built for summer. The relatively modest 5% ABV suggests so too. The intense sweetness of tinned pineapple is the only thing I get from the aroma, so everything so far points to this being nothing fancier than pineapple juice. It's light-bodied, fizzy and refreshing, so starts off well on the first sip. But then...

I have no objection to smoked pineapple. The seasoned, roasted fruit that comes at the end of a rodizio session is often welcome, though I've usually eaten too much by this stage. Anyway, it's a nice touch. This seems to have been aiming for that in beer form but misses the mark. The smoke is its own thing, right at the front of the flavour, and tastes acrid and fishy. It's a brief blip, however, and the fresh and juicy pineapple lands in immediately behind it, then the base beer: a light and zippy sour ale without pretensions. Finally, the finish adds a pleasant squirt of lime zest to give it more of a cocktail vibe. There's not much chilli, but still it would all have worked beautifully were it not for the ill-advised smoke component.

Smoke as a seasoning is difficult thing to pull off, especially in a pale beer. The rubbery burnt factor on show here is all too common, and I admire Rye River's optimism in thinking it wouldn't affect them. This beer isn't a complete disaster, and I appreciate a fruited sour ale that's actually sour for once. If you're less sensitive to the chlorophenols than I am, you might get on fine with it.