Here’s another beauty of a beer I got from my good buddy Dave Coulter. Dave is always sending me wonderful beers from Ohio, and in return I send him great beer from Georgia. Beer trades can be great things, indeed, and allow beer lover like Dave and I to experience brews we otherwise would not have access too.

Here’s just one example: Platform Cherimoya Project Dry Hopped Bergamot Pale Ale. This is the fourth beer Dave has sent me from Platform, and installment 2 of 4 in a series brewed with cherimoya fruit. I’ll confess that, before trying this beer, I had no idea what a cherimoya was. That, however, is what Wikipedia is for:

The cherimoya, also spelled chirimoya, is the fruit of the species Annona cherimola, which generally is thought to be native to Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia[1] then transported to the Andes and Central America…. The fruit flesh is white and creamy, and has numerous dark brown poisonous seeds embedded in it.

Some characterize the fruit flavor as a blend of banana, pineapple, papaya, peach, and strawberry. The fruit can be chilled and eaten with a spoon, which has earned it another nickname, the ice cream fruit. Indeed, in Peru, it is commonly used in ice creams and yogurt.

But in America, you see, we make beer out of it. Or at least in Cleveland, they do. According to my can label, Platform Cherimoya Project Dry Hopped Bergamot Pale Ale has the following ingredients:

MALT: Six malt mix

HOPS: Columbus, Mosaic, Au Summer

Yeast: San Diego

Fruit: Cherimoya, Bergamot orange

It does annoy me a bit, I will confess, that they list all the hops but not all the malts. Pandering to the hophead contingent that currently rule the day today. Equal rights for maltheads!

Anyway, Platform Cherimoya Project Dry Hopped Bergamot Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 6.8% by volume and here’s what I thought:

Platform Cherimoya Project Dry Hopped Bergamot Pale Ale pours to a bright orange color with a thick fizzy short lived head of foam and a luscious fruity nose of citrus. Taking a sip, the beer has a light caramel maltiness up front followed by zesty but not bitter notes of orange citrus rind, green apples, and a grassy hop bitterness in the finish. The beer is quite smooth and creamy (there’s the cherimoya for you), a little tropical fruity (the Mosaics) and of course citrusy from the orange and Columbus hops.

What a tasty beer! I’ll give Platform credit for using the fruit in proper proportions, and for juxtaposing the creamy cherimoya against the sharp citric orange. At this strength, one or two might be all you can drink, but that does not keep this beer from refreshing in the warm weather. Do they have warm weather in Cleveland?

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