Matso's Mango Beer

9...

I am very apprehensive about this... as I really don't get into novelty bullshit and fruity beers. Raspberry beers, while often delicious, are simply not 'beer' in the true sense. It's difficult to compare them to any other normal genre of beer, because often the taste is like some variation of other mixed drink. Given the pounding heat of late, I figured that a mango brew might go down alright on a hot arvo.

Before you even go in for a sample, you are whacked square in the shnoz by the sweet aroma of mango. While in one sense this was to be expected, the dominance of the smell is still staggering. It's enough to knock Con The Fruiterer off his feet. The pour really just looks like a fizzy yellow lager, with no redeeming qualities. The taste is abundantly mango...and does taste real enough as well, as opposed to feeling synthesized. In fact at first I couldn't even make out anything else behind it. This was in hindsight a good thing, because as the malt began to kick in, the end result was about as harmonious as the Gaza Strip. The clash is more like a tug of war than a mutual embrace, with veins of sweet fruit swinging back and forth with streaks of savoury bread, like a game of totem tennis between a giant mango and a malt shovel...

You might be imagining that right now, thinking it to be quite a spectacle. And you might also be thinking that you'd take 2-1 odds on the mango. But at the end of the day this isn't a beer, and it never will be. It's a novelty act for people that don't actually like beer. Otherwise known as heathens. It's for people who don't like the taste of alcohol, but just like to blame it the following morning.

3/10