Do you remember Playlist, Lost Palms’ blue lemonade soda style ale? I’d be worried if you didn’t, because we wrote about it less than a month ago. Well, the brewers have now followed it up with Joyful Raspberry Lemonade Soda Style Ale, and it’s a lovely drop.
Pouring a blushed peach nectar colour, Joyful gives off aromas of fresh raspberry before opening up to share the stage with homemade lemonade in the mouth. The lemon sourness is gentle, and the berries bring a clear raspberry quality while being more subtle than the big stuff-a-punnet-of-raspberries-in-your-face character that brewers usually go for in a raspberry beer. (There’s definitely nothing wrong with doing that - we all love when we get huge fruit notes! But it’s also nice to try a more nuanced, understated addition of raspberry.) Hugely refreshing.
Yeah, Go On Then Japanese Rice Lager brings a similar level of refreshment to Joyful, but with a different emotional tone. It was brewed in loving memory of a good friend that LP’s marketing guru Bakes lost last year: Jordan Bryce James McGregor.
The beer includes, I quote, “a metric butt tonne of the highest grade rice we could find,” and the result is a soft-as-silk body with a smooth-as-satin malt character. As well as some Vic Secret, it uses Pride of Ringwood, a classic Aussie bittering hop you don’t see much in the craft world, and the bitterness is real: never jolting, but closing in on the palate in a steady and unrelenting march. There’s low but interesting hop character – woody, floral, herbal – keeping the complexity, but you won’t have a problem forgetting about that if you’re just looking for a satisfyingly straightforward lager.
Raise a glass to Jordan, and to the friends and family who remember him with love.
Mick Wüst
Published June 2, 2023 2023-06-02 00:00:00
