Dandy Brewing - The Jungle Bird Tropical Dark Sour


This marks the first time I've ever had anything from Calgary's Dandy Brewing Co., I decided on The Jungle Bird, a Tropical Dark Sour described as an homage to the classic Tiki cocktail. This beer has notes of demerera sugar, bitter lime, tropical pineapple coming together for a refreshing sour that is like no other.
The Jungle Bird tops out at 5.0% ABV.

Appearance: The Jungle Bird pours a dark brown cola body with a burnt caramel hue to it. The head is a yellowish beige and doesn't tend to go anywhere so far.

Aroma: Well, this is certainly sour - it has a vinegary sourness that reminds me of La Duchesse de Bourgogne to a point, notes of dark cherries, a hint of lime, brown sugar, and Miss Vickie's Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar chips. I'm not sure where the tropical in the name is coming from so far as this is pretty much a dark sour.

Taste: The very first thing I thought about this beer was that it tasted eerily way too much like celery.. and I'm someone who hasn't enjoyed celery as a snack since I was maybe six years old. Once I let it warm up for a few more seconds, the sour notes are more prevalent giving off flavours of vinegar, a light amount of sour cherry, also a good heaping of figs, molasses and a mildly roasted malt presence. I'm still trying to find out where the tropical fruits are supposed to be.

Well, as I let the beer warm up a bit longer for more than a second or two, I'm starting to get more of a fruity presence popping up - The more sour-friendly flavours of lemon and lime are quite present, but I'm not getting anything specific... no pineapple, grapefruit, guava, etc.. maybe some orange peel?

Overall Thoughts: Certainly dark and sour but tropical? I'm obviously missing something in this beer that other people are picking up. Some people have been able to pick out sweet tropical (pineapple) fruits in it.. I just couldn't. That said, this is a very easy drinking sour, I love the presence of a bit of a roasted malt flavour as well as bit of brown sugar combined with some vinegar and dark cherries in the mix.

http://thedandybrewingcompany.com/work-1/

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