Be mine, for a while at least

The final day of One For The Road's first sours week ends with a juicy little number by our friends at Track Brewing Co. While we have had some real stand-out sours this week, I'm not sure I am a full convert just yet, but I'm starting to see what the fuss is about.

Brewery

Track Brewing Co.

Name

Never Be Mine

Style

Blackberry, Blueberry & Plum Sour (with cinnamon and coconut)

ABV

7.4%

I don't know about you, but when I see a beer claiming to have 5 different flavours, all of which are fairly robust, I can't help feeling that something is going to get lost along the way. I'll be upfront, with Never Be Mine, something definitely got lost along the way, but it wasn't my enjoyment.

On the nose Never Be Mine delivers a massive hit of stewed plum and apple, however, I was expecting cinnamon and coconut to really deliver, which they didn't. The fruity scents aren't fresh and zippy like citrus, but more mellowed and rounded out. On the nose you can tell this is more of a winter sour than the more summery flavours of the likes of Space Soda.

The beer pours with a reasonably thick body (everything is relative and if I hadn't had the Veil earlier in the week, I would have said this is very thick), and settles into the glass nicely with a deep ruby/purple colour.

The plummy notes on I got from the can really open up once this is in the glass and just beg you to get it in your mouth. Once this hits your tongue there is no doubt that you're drinking a sour, this is tart to the max. The plum flavour is strong enough to cut through the sourness, but most of the other flavours are lost, with the exception of the coconut which comes through at the tail end of the sip. After a few sips the blackberry flavour begins to become apparent, but I couldn't detect any blueberry at all and very little cinnamon.

All the fruit that has been crammed into this give Never Be Mine a very syrupy flavour which started to get a touch sickly by the end of the can. The sugar overload in the throat may be to blame, but I also found the coconut flavour was less and less pronounced and the plum flavour started to taste more and more like grape.

If I sound slightly negative in this review, forgive me, I liked this a lot. Like, a lot. This is a properly sour sour beer, more in the style of Vault City than Veil, which is a massive plus in my book. However, maybe a little more restraint at the costermonger's stand and this would have been even better. Either way, I'm glad this was mine, for a fleeting moment.

Score - 4.0