7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

(950ml growler from the BG18e brewpub) Pours opaque milky dark yellow with an orange cast, no head, floaty black bits of pear and banana, some light lacing for a smoothie with small pear chunks. Aroma is overripe banana, ripe and heavily floral vanilla-poached pears, some sweet and lightly piney mango, creamy and fragrant. Flavour is fairly sweet up front with the ripe banana to the fore, a lot of sweet and heavily perfumed/floral pears, vanilla and lactose quite prominent, no real acidity, mango is in the background with a touch of pine. Finish is heavy on quite astringent pear, almost bitter, floral perfume quite strong into the aftertaste. Mouthfeel medium-full, somewhat creamy thickness, no carbonation. I enjoyed the initial flavours but found the astringent pear character on the aftertaste a little fatiguing; that improved when paired with some brunch rather than on its own. Good but not the best of the series.