Deep Creek Brewing – Lava Lava Sour

The Summer has returned to the UK, even if only for a short time. I spent an afternoon having a socially distanced beer crawl with some friends the other day and, of course, some beery shenanigans ensued.

We met up in Shrewsbury and quickly went to one of our favourite places for cocktails; The Alb. Much to my surprise and joy they have created a small, yet enjoyable, craft beer menu of which a few Deep Creek cans were available. We chose to try “Lava Lava,”  Berlinner Weisse style sour beer first. This is a beer that’s packed full of tart fruity flavour thanks to mangoes and raspberries.

Their can art is also amazing. It makes me think I am on a beach in Hawaii looking up at palm trees, when in reality we are in the English Midlands -about as far from the sea as you can get. “Lava Lava” has a very distinctive aroma, it smells like a tropical fruit punch. Your nose is instantly greeted by the sweet scent of fresh mango and raspberry.

Though I enjoyed drinking the beer, I thought the flavour dominated by the raspberry flavour, leaving it a little unbalanced. Your tastebuds are hit with that sharp, tart raspberry flavour from the start with only subtle hints of sweet mango backing it up. However, my friend Dan thought it was nicely balanced and got a lot more mango than I did.

It just goes to show different people taste different things.

The body is nice and light; it was quite smooth and very easy drinking, a perfectly bodied 4.5% sour really.

Finally, the after tones of the beer were sweet, with notes of pineapple, mango and papaya all being present. The beer was refreshing an full of flavour.

Overall, I think it a very nice beer. I am quite enjoying sour beers at the moment due to the warm weather we’ve been having so I look forward to trying more.

If you happen to find your way to The Alb or you find it online – give it a try. What have you got to lose?