Mantra Persica Indica Double IPA

Mantra is a pretty good brewer, and they're a local brewer, so I like that. The fact that this can reminds me so much of the carrot beer that they made does not fill me with confidence. That said, peach and mango are the kinds of fruits that you might be able to pull from a particular strand of hop, so maybe they'll work some magic mixing this strange fruit juice and beer pairing.

The very cloudy yellow beverage has a respectable amount of head that leaves incredibly sticky bubble marks on the glass that are definitely not lacing. The aroma is what it says it will be on the bottle with peach and mango dominating a more floral hoppy backing. If there's a malt trying to get out, it is fighting a losing battle.

First sip is not good. It's tart and bitter with the flavor of the peach and mango dominating everything, but they're not bringing any of the sweetness that you would normally expect from those fruits. It reminds me of the phenomenon that happens when you try to drink orange juice after you brush your teeth. I'm led to understand that the reason that this is a bad idea is that the toothpaste basically coats the sweetness receptors, so all you can taste from the orange juice is the tart and bitter. That's what you get in here.

Tip-in is a dry fruit juice, and it has none of the sweetness that you would expect in a fruit juice, but it's not piling the tartness and bitterness on right at the beginning. The middle is very tart and slightly bitter with the floral hops joining the peach and mango to try and get a sense of a fruit juice going, but there's still no sweetness to it; I don't know where the malt is hiding, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. The finish is very dry with a significant uptick in bitterness while a dusty tartness fades away.

Bottom Line: Outlook not great. Try again later.

1.0/5