Latitude Adjustment

Fruit Beer - Fruit & Spice Beer - 29B (Base beer is American Pale Ale - 18B) This beer is an interesting take on a fruit/spice beer, using an APA as the base and adding in pineapple and coconut. Presented as a Tropical Pale Ale, the initial blast, before even looking at it, is certainly tropical! Huge notes of passion fruit pop out of the glass. Beyond this, toasted coconut is resilient. Oddly, clean alcohol also is pretty apparent, but the beer is very clean and hugely tropical, though the pineapple gets lost, which prevents this from being a piña colada. Really in the vein of the new school juicy pales and IPAs that are en vogue. As it warms, a faint note of biscuity malt becomes apparent. In terms of appearance, the beer is a murky deep gold with zero head. The beer almost looks like it has an oily meniscus atop it and the bubbles that are aroused stay trapped within the beer. Once the beer is tasted, I get a bit confused as the fruitiness that was anticipated is muted overall. The bitterness doesn't totally balance everything out here either. Passion fruit notes and that pineapple that's advertised seem to add an acidic note and the coconut gets lost in the taste. The finish is a bit bitter and distinctly tropical. Again reminds me of those new school pales and is very clean and super drinkable with a balanced finish. The mouthfeel has an impression of medium + body and borderline oily. Given the appearance, I expected low carbonation, but it is medium- and works here. Not unpleasant on the palate, but not totally on point. Overall, this beer does manage to work, though the oily aspect (which I attribute to the coconut) is pretty distracting and deadens the flavor initially, but ultimately the beer does come together in the end. Perhaps some clarity and head on the beer would improve this one, but a fun drink!