Original Australian Gluten Free Sour Fruit Beer Back For Summer!

Squeeze freedom this summer with gluten free beer – passion fruit beer; sour style!

This is the taste of freedom; free from gluten and free from lockdowns; summer lays ahead and Pulp Fusion is here to stay.

The very first gluten free sour beer to be packed in Australia and shipped across the country is back – and this time it's a seasonal release, meaning it will stick around until Easter... unless it runs out!

Pulp Fusion is a Berliner Weisse-style sour beer, which means it's designed to be a tarty, cloudy German beer, typically around 3-3.5% abv and often served with a fruity syrup. It’s a great entry level point into the world of Sours. 

Head brewer Kristian and the team add real passion fruit pulp directly to the beer in the fermentation tanks – with the pulp of 10,000 passion fruits going into each brew – and Talus hops replacing Simcoe this time around for more intense citrus flavours.

Our December 2020 limited edition release now carries a gold medal too, having been awarded the accolade at the 2022 Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) for its aroma, appearance, body, flavour and technical quality, commenting that the "judges enjoyed a good representation of the style". Praise indeed.

Pulp Fusion's light straw, hazy colour gives it a beautiful long summery look to match its finish.

How does Pulp Fusion Passion Fruit Beer Taste?

Mid-strength, beautifully refreshing and packing a tasty, yet sessionable, punch, with sour passion fruit and light hoppy notes. 

Big passion fruit aromas, a spritzy body and a tart, tangy and cleansing long finish make for a very generous food partner; bbq, salad or seafood. 

What is a Sour Beer?

Instead of a traditional beer mash (mixing grains with water), kettle sours undergo a “sour mash.” Basically, instead of boiling the beer-to-be and then cooling it to ready it for yeast, the liquid is boiled, cooled, and dosed with the ‘magic’ ingredient Lactobacillus! 

This mixture then chills while the liquid sours. Once the desired level of tartness is achieved, the normal brewing process is resumed. Boil; add hops; cool; add yeast and allow ferment fermentation. 

“Kettle” refers to stainless steel in which the grains are boiled and the liquid is cooled and fermented, denoting the key difference between kettle sours and traditional sours which age in barrels. 

Read more on sour gluten free beers here >>>

“It’s a beer that shows the diversity of what we’re able to do with gluten free grains,” says TWØBAYS head brewer Kristian Martin.

"It’s a kettle sour that was brewed with a live lactic culture, which creates an approachable sourness, as well as providing a lot of fruity aromatics such as apple and lemon. 

“We brewed with a German-style yeast strain, similar to a Berliner Weisse, but ultimately this beer was about showcasing the diversity of gluten free malts more than brewing a classic style.  

“We used real passion fruit pulp and we’re really pleased with the big fruitful flavours in the beer – it’s great to be able to offer the gluten free community a style of beer that would otherwise not have been available.” 

“As a gluten free consumer, I’d heard about all the sour beers being brewed in the ‘barley-beer’ world, and was keen to taste one to see what the fuss was all about,” says TWØBAYS Founder Richard Jeffares, who was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in 2015, having never tried a Sour Beer. 

“People were asking for this beer to come back, so we listened. Personally, I love this beer too – especially as the weather warms up – it’s such a refreshing beer. It’s crisp, hazy, smashable and mid-strength!  

“We want everybody to be able to experience the full craft beer journey, and sours are a big part of this. We hope to experiment with more sour styles and flavours in the future.

“For years Australian craft beer lovers have explored the wonderful world of sour beers, while the gluten free community has missed out – not anymore!!” 

Any more awards?

The AIBA 2022 gold medal wasn't the first medal Pulp Fusion had won; after we entered into the 2020 Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show where it was awarded a silver medal in a non-gluten free category. The judges suggested we go heavier on the fruit flavour, so we did this time!

"Very light straw colour light haze, good starting head/carbonation, light fruit nose/too light, light body body... good length and balance although fruit light. Good long pleasant finish."