Treated myself to another beer from my local bottle shop with a completely new brewery for me. This brew is from UnBarred Brewery based out of Brighton and is part of their Single Hop Single Fruit (SHSF) series and is a NEIPA featuring Citra and passion fruit as the stars of the show. I quite like the idea of focusing down on one of each as I imagine it gives the brewers the chance to really make the individual components shine on their own.

Thick, juicy pour on the beer with a gold bullion like colour and a very deep haze. While not visible in the photo there is a small amount of sediment as well which in small amounts isn’t bad. On the nose it’s most certainly sharp citrus and passion fruit. A surprisingly tart initial taste that I wasn’t expecting. The flavours really do let the hop and fruit shine with the juiciness bursting through. Bitter finish but refreshing on the whole as well as a slight alcohol warmth going down.

A quick note on the can art: A simply gorgeous piece of art work by artist Will Blood. The colours and imagery of the passion fruit and the skeleton play together really well and I think it suits the contents of the can. Potentially my favourite ever can design.

What a very interesting beer. I was not expecting the initial sourness but I suppose with the amount of passion fruit in the beer I shouldn’t have been too surprised, and it did work well. The sediment was fine and did not interfere with the beer at all in my opinion, although it’s always nice if they add a note about it on the can so you know to pour a bit more carefully. Super juicy and tasty, and not overbearingly boozy despite being 7.6% ABV. Would really like to see what other hops and fruits UnBarred have paired together in this series as I think it’s a really great idea!

Score: 8/10

Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Additional Information:

• Hops: Citra
• Malt: Not Available
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 7.6%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes!
• Purchase Price: £5.60
• Purchase Location: Arch Rivals