Beer Man: Juicy pineapple notes elevate Piña Agria
Beer Man is a weekly profile of beers from across the country and around the world.
This week: Piña Agria
Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colo.
This week's column takes a look at a couple of sour beers from the Odell brewery, one that works and another, not so well.
Piña Agria is a sour pineapple ale that is successful because it's not just about the sour. Instead of burying other flavors with overpowering vinegar notes like many American breweries do, Odell actually allows the pineapple to be prominent in the aroma and flavor.
The pineapple in Piña was not just a flavoring — it had that fresh, juicy lipsmacking character that makes you delay swallowing for a few seconds while you enjoy the sensation.
The golden-colored ale, poured from the 750ml bottle, formed a light head and bubbles immediately began cascading upwards from the bottom of the glass. Along with the pineapple aroma, there was some earthy yeast.
There is no mistaking that this is a sour beer, yet some sweetness from the pineapple provided a nice balance with the vinegar aspects. The background contained some funky notes from Brett yeast — earthy, but not leathery.
The carbonation was prickly on the tongue, which added to the refreshing character of the 6.5% ABV ale. It finished slightly dry, while allowing the pineapple to linger for several seconds. In a year that saw an explosion of sour beers introduced into the market, Piña Agria stood out from the pack.
Odell's Friek beer is puzzling because while it has a lot in common with Piña Agria, such as the mouthfeel and carbonation, the cherries and raspberries in it were not as prominent. While Friek had fruit-like flavor, I didn't get a sense of the actual fruits used like I did with the pineapple in Piña. They also did not provide the sweetness that the pineapple did in Piña, which made the sourness more pronounced in the 6.9% ABV Friek.
The amount of fruit used in brewing can vary wildly — I've made five-gallon batches of peach ale with as little as seven pounds of fruit, but had to use 15-20 pounds of fruit when making cherry or raspberry ales to get the same level of fruitiness.
Odell is distributed in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. It has a ZIP code-searchable Beer Finder link at the top of its home page.
Many beers are available only regionally. Check the brewer's website, which often contains information on product availability by mail. Contact Todd Haefer at beerman@postcrescent.com. To read previous Beer Man columns, click here.