PINEAPPLE EXPRESS IPA - POLLY’S BREW CO. & TINY REBEL
I’m a little late to the game to review this beer but it has changed my perceptions, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. To give a bit of a backstory, I’m 34 and was brought up on traditional ales which I thoroughly enjoyed at the time. Back then cloudy pints were returned to the bar and there was certainly no fruit added to the beer. Now things have changed. I am massively disappointed if my beer isn’t cloudy and unrefined these days but until now a little bit of that traditional perspective still hung over me in terms of adding ingredients to beers other than a combination of traditional ingredients (hops, yeast and malt etc). Some part of me deemed it as cheating for some reason. BUT… this beer has changed that. There is no way to get away from it, I absolutely loved this beer that incorporated ‘fresh pineapple’ into the brew. I enjoyed it from start to finish. From now on I am not getting hung up of the technicalities. One of my favourite fruity beers; Hop, Skip and Juice a collaboration between Vocation and Marble brewery achieved a fantastic fruity beer from using a combination of hops, but I can’t help feeling that I preferred this beer. Part of me feels bad for enjoying it so much. Tiny Rebel known for its whacky, out their beer recipes have combined with probably my current favourite brewery Polly’s Brew Co. to produce what can only be described as a Pineapple sledgehammer of a beer. I regularly enjoy a Polly’s Brew Co. beer and I very rarely delve into Tiny Rebel because of the above mindset so I was keen to give this one a go. The beer looked absolutely tremendous in the glass, opaque with a vibrant yellow colouration and a foamy white head. On opening, I was hit by huge sweet pineapple aromas with hints of mango and grapefruit and it seriously smelled good. From the first sip the body of the beer felt excellent, smooth and almost creamy with good levels of carbonation delivering the flavours excellently. It felt impressive. Taste wise, if you like pineapple, you will absolutely love this. Truck loads of pineapple and hints of mango were complimented by a sweet grapefruit, dry bitterness resulting in a tropical beer that was thirst quenchingly moorish. At 6.2% ABV it also had a lovely warming effect with zero toughness at all!
To round things up with a little perspective. I have loved the Polly’s Brew Co. beer I have been getting of late, they seem top of the league for me at the moment however if you are after a beer with a massive tropical hit then this is up there. This beer hinges on whether you like fruity beers, especially pineapple (that’s the deal breaker). Given that this is a £3 can from Tesco you will absolutely love this if you like pineapple and are after a punchy, zesty tropical beer. This is one that will be in my shopping cart again and again.
Great work by both Polly’s Brew Co. and Tiny Rebel.
Highly recommended!
