Beer name: Mongozo Banana
Origin: Melle, Belgium
Brewer: Brouwerij Huyghe (they have a rubbish website, Mongozo is more helpful.
Alc. Vol: 4.8%
As the name suggests, this is a banana flavoured beer, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be any good. I’ve had banana beer before and it wasn’t very nice, so it was a very pleasant surprise when I opened up the Mongozo!
Opening up the bottle, I was greeted by a fragrant aroma of bananas. Since this is a banana beer that may not surprise you, but my experience with flavoured beer is that it rarely lives up to it’s supposed flavour, so it was very nice to smell something which actually resembled what the bottle claimed it to be.
I was surprised yet again when I poured it into a glass, not only by the bright yellow banana colouring, but also by the small bits of banana floating in my glass! Thats right, this beer wasn’t just made with bananas, they actually left some bits of banana in it! I actually sat and stared at it for a while before I drank, because the small bits of banana were actually floating around in the glass, being lifted up to the top by the gases being released, and then sinking back down again.
I suppose I should have expected as much by now, but I was once again impressed by just how much the beer tasted like banana. Indeed I would liken it to a banana milkshake more than a beer. Thankfully it also had a slight bitter edge to it, which made it very pleasant to drink, although it’s still a very sweet beer. Definately one to have with your fruity pudding!
This beer was thoroughly enjoyable, although it’s sweetness does mean it’s not the kind of thing I would have in a pub, I certainly would enjoy it after an evening meal. For me this gets a good solid four out of five.
Rating: 