What's a Guanabana - a recipe for tongue tie, that's what it is. 

I thought this must've been just a cute made-up name, and what do you know? That's actually the name for the Soursop fruit. 

Bear in mind that printed on the label, there's even a little description that says "It’s a mysterious tropical fruit that smells like pineapple and tastes like strawberries and apples, but tart. Any guesses? Soursop 😛", and I still chuckled to myself thinking ah what funny stories.

But, lo and behold as Google will attest, it really is Soursop.

So this one is Singaporean craft brewery Brewlander's Sour Plum and Soursop Gose, gose being a type of beer originating in Germany that's brewed with salt and traditionally seasoned with coriander, using a heavy amount of malted wheat.

Let's give it a go!

Guanabana Gose, Brewlander, 5% ABV - Review

Tasting Note

Color: Bright Pineapple

Aroma: It's citrusy with a light sweet-sourness of starfruits and yellow kiwi, also a light lactic bready sourness. Over time brighter more delicate aromas of orange blossoms.

Taste: More of of that those sweet-sour and slightly musky notes of guava, soursop, starfruit, green mango, Sicilian lemons (the sort of sweet ones) and just a light hit of yellow bananas - lightly tart and sour, that sort of citrusy acidity, but also more salty and puckering. There's also more of those tropical flavours of pineapple juice and sugarcane juice. It's medium bodied but bright and fresh and smooth. A little of straw as well.

Finish: Smooth with a light sweet and tart finish. More of those starfruits, with the sourplums making an appearance. Over time, a nice, mellow block of sweet barley sugars. Nice refreshing finish.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this so much - it was so refreshing and had all the complexity to keep me occupied. I really love how this was not too sweet or sour or even salty but a very good balance of the three (in the Hokkien dialect, there's a term "giam sng di" which means salty-sour-sweet which describes this perfectly). And was just downright very refreshing, also ending with that just lovely rich, concentrated block of barley sugars. 

Frankly I'm quite surprised I liked it so much given that I'm not usually one for tart or salty flavours, but really this was damn addictive. It's so reminiscent of local singaporean hawker drinks of sour plum in cane juice or sour plum in cooked barley. Or also another southeast asian snack of green mango or guava slices coated in sour plum powder - which this is a perfect mirror image of. This really got me craving some local hawker food actually. God damn I really love this one!

Still available at Brewlander or Cold Storage supermarkets around Singapore.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot