Today’s beer is a rather wacky sounding one from the folks over at London based brewery Exale. ‘Krankie’, named after the famous Scottish comedy act, is of course an Iron Brew flavoured sour beer. For those that have never heard of Irn-Bru it is the iconic drink from Scotland (just after whisky of course)! It’s a fizzy drink that has an almost indescribable flavour but an absolutely iconic taste at the same time. This comes in at 4.2% ABV.

Visually the beer pours a burnt orange colour with a fairly dense white head. Not quite the fluorescent orange of the classic Irn-Bru. There isn’t particularly too much on the nose for me except that classic sour beer tartness you often get. The body of the beer falls a little flat for me. Hardly any sourness at all to be honest. Was expecting something much sharper. Equally, while there is perhaps a touch of Irn-Bru flavouring to the beer I think it really goes missing.

A quick note on the can art: The design predominantly features the Exale Brewery logo in the middle with rays of orange sunshine emanating from it. I guess they couldn’t lean into the Irn-Bru theme more due to copyright concern.

Once again I’m feeling a little bit let down by an Exale beer. My last beer from them didn’t taste much of oyster or seaweed as described and frankly this one doesn’t taste much like Irn-Bru either. That’s not to say it’s a bad drink. It’s actually perfectly drinkable. However, it doesn’t do what it says on the tin. For me it is neither sour nor very much like the classic flavour that is Irn-Bru sadly. Additionally, nowhere on the can does it say it contains lactose where as on the website it lists it as an allergen. Not sure which is correct but not ideal either way.

Score: 5/10

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Additional Information:

• Hops: Not Available
• Malt: Barley, Oats
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 4.2%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: No