The team at Venom first decided to bring a drop of liquid nostalgia to the beer world via a Portello-inspired beer back in 2020. At that stage, it was an imperial fruited sour we likened to a "liquified boiled lolly" and "a GABS festival beer to sate those bemoaning the absence of the 2020 events". It proved a winner with drinkers and has returned on occasion since.
Now, it's back again for summer 2024/25, reinvented as a rather more sessionable affair brewed at Deeds: the ABV has dropped from 7 to 4.5 percent, and there's a redesigned label featuring a snake wrapped around a vial of poison. But if the potency has been reined in, the vibrancy remains.
It pours with a head that's a deeper pink than the liquid in many berry sours, while the Portello Sour's own liquid is a lurid crimson. There's a sherbety Wizz Fizz feel to the sour lolly berry flavours, maintaining an olde lolly shop feel courtesy of a lick of rounding lactose, all without losing its zippy zing.
James Smith
Published December 19, 2024 2024-12-19 00:00:00