"...If you like Piña Coladas..."

Someone at Evil Twin Brewing clearly does, because they have gone and made a Piña Colada inspired beer; IPA Kolata is a 8% ABV IPA brewed with lactose, pineapple and coconut. I spotted this beer on Instagram a while back & and been wanting to try it ever since, so kudos again to Hop Shop Aberdeen for getting it on the shelf.

Here's what Evil Twin have to say about it:

"​Inspired by an iconic tropical cocktail with a twist of what a modern beer should taste like. An IPA shaken up with lactose and with coconut and pineapple added. It’s creamy, fruity, comforting, annoyingly good and basically the epitome of poolside drinking."

I love a Piña Colada & I love a good beer, so this should be interesting.

First up, the can looks so cool - I'm a huge fan of what Evil Twin do with their can designs, they are usually so simplistic, bold & eye catching. IPA Kolata pours a cloudy golden orange with a foamy white head that disperses quite quickly. Aromas are mostly pineapple & citrus hops along with a touch of coconut & sweetened milk - very interesting aromas.

​Taste wise, this beer is pretty much as advertised - loads of pineapple, coconut & lactose alongside more tropical fruits & a touch of bitterness. This beer tastes great, and it is extremely drinkable! It is so smooth & creamy, with very little carbonation - it goes down so well.

Overall, this has been one awesome beer. The flavours work so well together, and the creaminess from the lactose makes it so drinkable. I'm hoping to feature more and more beers from Evil Twin Brewing on here as they are such an exciting brewery - the Danish born company are set to open their first every brewery/tap room later this year in Queens, NYC.

IPA Kolata gets 4.5 out of 5 from me 🍻

We all love a nice ice cold shandy on a refreshing day right? So when I seen that Evil Twin Brewing & Omnipollo had come together to brew an Old Fashioned Lemonade IPA, I was extremely interested in trying it out. 

Old Fashioned Lemonade is a 7% ABV IPA that has been brewed for Evil Twin by Dorchester (home of Marky Mark!) Brewing Company in Boston, Massachusetts. 

"A refreshing drink often associated with childhood nostalgia to others a pop-cultural symbol of emancipatiion. Whatever the association Evil Twin teamed up with Omnipollo to squeeze out a tasty, tempting and deceivingly well balanced IPA with sweet and sour notes of old-fashioned memories. Perhaps you can taste the dishonesty, it's all over your breath - it's Lemonade."

When brewing giants come together, it usually produces good results, lets see what happened here...

Cracking open this can and it is just lemons galore; the sweet citrus aromas fill your nose as you pour it into a glass. It pours a bright golden yellow with a foamy white head, with a surprising amount of murkiness to it.

This beer tastes exactly as you would expect it to - like lemonade. There is really no other way to describe it. From the first sip you get that instant sourness of the lemons coupled with a decent amount of sweetness. There's a slight hoppy/bitter backbone to it all that reminds you that you are in fact drinking a beer, and not a can of lemonade. 

The overall result is that this is literally the perfect summers day beer. It's so light, smooth, refreshing and the ABV is almost non existent that you could easily smash your way through a few of these. However, it didn't stand out enough from me and was too similar to other fruit beers I've had in the past. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - I did, it was just missing something that could have took it to the next level.

​3.75 out of 5 hops from me 🍻