The artwork on the can is titled: “Shower Cow.” Self-explanatory, if delightfully bizarre.
The name and style of the beer is Raspberry Milkshake IPA, which needs a little more breaking down.
Milkshake IPAs have been around for years now: hazy IPAs that have been dosed with lactose to bring sweetness and creaminess, and the inclusion of unmalted grains that’ll boost that creamy texture. Sometimes the fruitiness is all from the hops, and sometimes they’ll contain actual fruit.
So if we were to stop here, it’s clear what a “Raspberry Milkshake IPA” is. This beer is an opaque reddish-purple with pink foam; has plenty of Peacharine, Galaxy and Citra hops; loads of flaked oats, flaked barley and flaked wheat; and a whole lot of raspberry. We’re done here, right?
Except… there’s more to this beer than that. Those of you with deft observational skills (well, anyone who can read) will have noticed this beer is part of Aether’s Summer of Sour series – the first of two for summer ’24/’25. And this beer’s absolutely a sour, and that changes everything.
It starts with big raspberry Fanta vibes on the nose. My teenage self was very excited when a bunch of new Fanta flavours came to Australia around 2001/2002*, and my current self quite enjoyed the olfactorial flashback. But in the mouth, the raspberry character somehow transforms into Allen’s Strawberries & Cream lollies. Because of this sweet surprise, it took me a few seconds for my brain to register that there was quite a bit of sourness washing through my mouth as well. That’s when the raspberry came back, and a hops showed that they’re bringing some citrus and tropicals to this cleverly constructed flavour profile, too.
So what kind of beer is this?
Sour Raspberry Milkshake IPA?
Raspberry Sour Milkshake IPA?
Raspberry Milkshake Sour IPA?
Raspberry Milkshake IPA Sour?
I honestly do not know. And I think Aether didn’t know what to go with either, hence just sticking this beer into their Summer of Sour series and leaving it at that.
Mick Wüst
* Anyone want to fact check me on this? A brief internet check didn’t help. How dare the Coca-Cola company not have a timeline showing when each flavour became available in each country!
Published October 26, 2024 2024-10-26 00:00:00
