Pineapple Milkshake IPA (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

The weather has been so hot and humid over the last few days. I've spent the last three mornings staying late at the gym and sitting outside in the blazing sunshine. I'd completed all of my exercises, weights and swimming for those mornings and was either in the sauna or outside in the sun. It was glorious just to sit and watch people… okay… mainly women in bikinis… on sun-beds and in the pool enjoying the summer's sun. It seemed only fitting to pick the most thirst quenching sounding beer I could find in my beer fridge. Ironically it's rained all day today…

This Pineapple Milkshake IPA was produced by the Black Sheep Brewery, in North Yorkshire. At 5.3% volume it was brewed with fresh pineapple juice, lactose, Denali hops for an extra citrus pineapple flavoured boost, and a touch of vanilla for the "milkshake" side of the beer's title. Lightly carbonated this India Pale Ale gave a cheerful fizz on opening.

There was the unmistakable and rather tropical smell of pineapple from this golden IPA, with a little pale malt at the back of the aroma. I immediately decided that this beer would be super refreshing and thirst quenching. How wrong could I be?

On taste the pineapple is pretty overpowering for my tastebuds I'm afraid. I say that because the added bitter pineapple wallop from the hops made my face twist a little, which is not what I was expecting from this beer. The added vanilla came in later in the taste just before the almost completely overshadowed pale malt. This "milkshake" almost tastes weird, unbalancing the beer with a kind of "what?" as the dulled down sweet malt shows its face for a second before being swamped by the pineapple aftershock… er… aftertaste. Not a beer for me…