Hopsynth

(American Wild Ale - Wild Specialty Beer - 28C) This beer is poured into the glass and has the appearance of those new school pale ales. It is a very turbid pale gold with a super resilient white head that sticks heavily to the glass, leaving robust lacing. The nose opens up with a bright tropical fruit character, guava & pineapple come to mind. There is a distinct funk to this, coming across as yogurt-like and pleasant. Really neat interplay between the base beer & the hops. It almost comes across as a tropical fruit sour rather than a hopped one! As it warms, clean alcohol pops out as well. On tasting, it really comes across differently than the nose. I get a bunch of biscuit and crackery-type notes with lower than expected acidity. It reads to me like a young sour ale with bacteria in suspension. The restrained acidity kind of reflects this as well. There's a fairly prominent bitterness that makes the beer seem like a soured American Pale Ale. Once you get past the the biscuity notes, lots of tropical fruit comes through, distinctly guava again, that could be from either the hops or Brett fermentation, but they cooperate here. The mouthfeel is on point, medium bodied with medium carbonation and a hint of astringency, likely from the hops. All in all, a really neat beer and the dry hop works great with the base beer. I do think it is on the young side resulting in some bacterial flavors, but it reminds me of a soured pale ale. It'd be neat to see this beer finished with some additional Brett to knock down that youth character. Perhaps age would help this one out.