One Drop Blueberry & Raspberry Fairy Floss Sour and the remarkable ride
Is it a sour beer whose flavour profile will somehow conjure up the image of a fairy doing “the floss” once I get it in my mouth (you know, the dance that only small children seem able to perform)?
Or, will it evoke the experience of using a blueberry fairy (a sub-species I would presume) to floss between one's teeth?
I’d be entirely happy with either, but after reading the can (maybe I should have gone there first) - it turns out that fairy floss is actually Australian for candy floss - and, well, that all makes much more sense (even if not quite as exciting).
Silliness aside, it’s another beer that plays on the confected sour theme that is currently whipping around the world at a great rate of knots.
The beer starts with a kettle sour base which is then pumped to the extreme with large additions of raspberry and blueberry pulp, followed by heaps of candy floss. The kettle sour provides the tart - the fruit brings sweetness and acidity and the candy floss pushes the sweetness further.
These bombastically confected brews always bring my thoughts back to Sauternes, the famous, and rather expensive, sweet wine from Bordeaux. It can pack up to 200 grams per litre of residual sugar, but also sports outrageous acidity which offers a lovely counterbalance to freshen up the experience.
Let’s see if this beer can do the same…
Pours a redcurrant red with a head that dissipates quickly. The nose is just so confected and fruity, offering lovely fresh smelling raspberry and blueberry notes (as you’d hope) which meld with syrupy sweet notes that takes us into boiled sweet territory. On the palate though, things take a different course, with all the above notes from the nose combining with a scintillating electric sour blast, that puckers the palate and balances the sweet and fruit elements to perfection. Bravo… a big sweet, sour, fresh and fruity experience for the mouth!
For me, the evocative name really sets a stage on which the beer needs to perform, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s not a cheap drop for sure - but there’s a lot packed into this one and for $16 - your senses will be taken on a most remarkable ride.