I don't know what to make of this from the get-go. The implication by calling this "Gummies" is that it's going to be sweet and delicious, but DIPAs are generally not that sweet. Any that venture so far as to say that they are heavily tropical would more likely be significantly hopped, so they're going to be bitter. Who knows? Maybe these guys used lactose sugar to sweeten it up. That might be an interesting combination.
The beer looks like a DIPA, and it does not produce very much head, despite a particularly aggressive pour. The bronze beer turns to gold in areas where the glass thins out, and there are many points of nucleation at the bottom that send bubbles to die at the top of the beer. There isn't even a regular ring around the sides of the glass on this one, so I suspect there will be no lacing. After all, you have to have bubbles in order to get lacing. The aroma is tropical and tart. I don't know that there are a whole lot of gummies that are tart. I was really looking forward to a dessert beer, but that's not what I'm smelling. But smelling, as they say, is not sipping.
First sip is good, but I wouldn't call it gummies. I like gummies. I don't mind this drink, but it doesn't taste like gummies. It does have a strange sweetness that is likely from some lactose sugars, and those are joined by quite a bit of tropical fruit. The result is a beer that seems almost confused by what it's supposed to taste like. This isn't sweet enough for a dessert beer, but it's not gentle enough for a regular drinking beer. The 9.5% ABV indicates that this might be for the college party crowd who doesn't actually like the taste of beer. I do like the taste of beer, and this isn't the taste of beer that I look for.
Tip-in is tropical fruits, sweetness, and a misplaced tartness. Usually, the middle shows what the beer is all about and the hidden depths that caused a beer to be distributed in the first place, but not this time; motes of tropical fruits mix with unwanted tartness and overwhelming sweetness to produce a jumbled mess. The finish is sharp and a bowing out of fruits before the sweetness and tartness are left to battle each other for supremacy in the trail off.
1.5/5