Drekker Brewing | Peach Passionfruit Braaaaaaaains
Over-fruited sours. Smoothie sours. Whatever you want to call them, they sell amazingly well and make great for great Instagram filter pictures. No matter whether you think these creations are beer or not, they remain very tasty and potentially dangerous if not kept cold. So it makes perfect sense that these types of sours have reached all the way to Fargo, North Dakota brewery Drekker.
I’m sure there are some great breweries in North Dakota, but the only one I’m familiar with is Drekker. (Let me know about others – we’re looking for some North Dakota beers for our state show series!) Drekker opened in the fall of 2014 and expanded to their “Brewhalla” destination brewery in 2018. We’ve had one of their more traditional Berliner Weisses on one of our Patreon-exclusive Low ABVs and I’ve had a DIPA as well. But it’s clear that Drekker’s calling card are these types of sours, with their Chonk sundae sour being their standout.
The Beer
Braaaaaaaaoins (8 a’s, I checked) is Drekker’s smoothie sour. Various fruits are added and – at least in the case of the peach and passion fruit one sampled here – lactobacillus, vanilla beans, lactose sugar and sea salt as well. So, yeah, a few things I wasn’t expecting in this beer.
Do you like pulpy orange juice? Peach and Passionfruit Braaaaaaaains pours exactly like it, with about the same amount of head – that is, very little. A slight gradient from an orange to a dark orange exists along with what looks like chunks on the top. Maybe I should’ve rolled the can or something because those last pours were looking mighty thick and pulpy. That residual fruit stain typical of these beers coats the glass when you’re finished.
Now there’s an inherent problem with reviewing these types of smoothie sours. The can pretty much says what you should smell and, if it doesn’t smell like that, something’s really wrong. True to the can, tart passion fruit dominates the nostrils, with a nice little supplement of stone fruit in there. Mission accomplished. There might be a hint of salinity in there (can influence possibly) and some earthiness coming in, but it’s all peach and passion fruit.
Mission accomplished as well on the smoothie aspect of the sour, with this Braaaaaaaains going across the tongue like Ryan’s favorite Carlos Santana song (ft. Rob Thomas). A medium carbonation moves most things out of the way in a timely manner (like Ryan’s favorite Carlos Santana song (ft. Rob Thomas)) and leaves behind a pleasant tartness. Passion fruit is very easy to overdo, and Drekker managed to rein it in, either through moderation or the use of sea salt. The earthiness of the peach provides a nice balance to the tartness while any salinity from the sea salt was not noticeable. But again, taste matched the label for the most part.
Verdict
How you feel about these smoothie-style sours will depend on how much you’ll enjoy or drink it again. While this Braaaaaaains has some slight beer-like qualities, it has more in common with a Jamba Juice drink than anything else, albeit at 6% ABV (not listed on the can). Did I finish this can in record time? Yup. It was one of the better smoothie sours I’ve had and would definitely drink it again, but I’d still sooner have a lightly fruited Berliner Weisse or a pilsner as a refreshing drinking option.
