Beer of the Week: Cactus Drooler

From the Beer Writer: Well, that’s different, I remember thinking as eight-year-old me perused the buttons on the circa-1960’s model beverage machine on the exterior of the rec room at my grandparents’ mobile-home park. I had come in search of one-off flavors of Crush, because, really, orange is so pedestrian, whereas strawberry is for true soda sophisticates. But the button previously assigned to that faux-berry potable now featured the orange, green and yellow desert-themed logo of something I’d never heard of…Cactus Cooler. Though I had no idea what it tasted like, and the name wasn’t all that enticing, I decided finding out what it was all about was worth my handful of silver coinage of varying thicknesses. I deposited that youngster-grade treasure and hastily popped the top on the exotic can I received in return. My taste buds were met with big flavors of citrus and pineapple. It was similar to drinking a Mosaic-hopped IPA, so it’s no wonder that, just like those hoppy ales, this soda hit all the right buttons for me. Back in their youth, the guys behind Ataraxia Aleworks had similarly fond reactions to Cactus Cooler, enough that they set out to emulate the Southwestern soda when crafting this week’s featured beer, Cactus Drooler. As expected, they fruited their Berliner weisse went with orange (blood, that is) and pineapple, but went a step further, adding, aptly enough, prickly pear, AKA cactus pear. The result is a light-bodied, tart beer that resembles its inspiration but also offers subdued earthy notes, plus a cranberry-like tannic quality in the finish. And though it’s not the fluorescent orange I so loved (and still do), it presents in a pretty magenta brought on by the blood orange and cactus fruit.

From the Brewer: “Cactus Drooler is our homage to the popular orange-pineapple soda. This Berliner weisse was soured through natural means. The desired naturally occurring bacteria was isolated while the undesirables were removed in order to obtain a moderate tartness while avoiding any off-flavors. After fermentation was finished, the beer was infused with blood orange, pineapple and prickly pear purée. This beer is perfect while the warm San Diego summer weather settles into a cozier fall temperature!”–Daren Rudy, Co-founder & Head Brewer, Ataraxia Aleworks