SweetWater Brewing Company was founded in 1997 in Atlanta, Ga. and has steadily grown since. They currently offer six year-round brews, a special series of six beers, and one seasonal, Tropical Lover, is up for review today.
Tropical Lover is a Berliner Weisse with mango, passion fruit, and guava. The beer poured a clear gold color with a decent head and a lot of bubbles. The head disappeared rather quickly and you could hear the carbonation coming to the top. The aroma was fruity with guava and mango taking the lead. There is a little faint aroma of hops as well.
Given the amount of carbonation that I saw, and heard, upon pouring I expected this beer to be very bubbly. That wasn’t the case though. There was moderate carbonation which was a nice surprise. I would imagine if you are drinking straight from the can there might be a different story with the carbonation.
The first sip was a bit of a surprise. You expect a sweet beer but this beer was subtle in its sweetness and tart at the finish, giving your bitter areas of your taste buds an awakening. The beer feels light in the mouth, like a typical beer and finishes a little dry with that tart kick. The sour notes linger in the back of the throat for a minute. There was no lacing on my glass and I’m not sure if this was due to my glass or the beer.
Overall, this is definitely a summer beer. If you don’t like sour or tart you will not like this. However, I found it refreshing and the dry, tart finish had me wanting another sip. It is a decent take on a Berliner Weiss and while I would have it again I wouldn’t make this a session beer but would insert it into a lineup for a change of pace.