With snow in the air, and night-time temperatures dropping below freezing, I think everyone in the Northeast is dreaming about the islands…so I was excited to get back to mybeerbuzz headquarters tonight and find that the islands have come to me.
More specifically…Coronado Brewing Guava Islander came my way, so naturally we had to try some. We brought you a peek at the bottles back in July, and the cans in Sept; and if you are unfamiliar, Guava Islander is a “tropical IPA.” The beer is brewed with Centennial, Chinook and Columbus hops as well as guava puree and it will now become part of Coronado’s core lineup of beers. 
Based on some of their earlier fruited beers, Coronado locked in on Guava as the perfect fruit to highlight their selected hops. This beer is based on their 2014 World Beer Cup gold-medal winning Islander IPA and it uses over 8-pounds of Guava puree per barrel.
So how is it? It’s actually a really nice beer. The beer pours with some really impressive and pleasant fruit aromas that scream “guava, guava, guava!” (and maybe a little strawberry). This has to be one of the more fruit-forward aromas I’ve encountered in an IPA. The flavor follows up with more guava, but it’s balanced well by the citrusy hops. Think west-coast classic IPA meets tropical juice drink, and you’ll get the idea. The juice-to-hop balance is nice and the beer is really drinkable…and yes it does absolutely remind me of sitting on the beach in the islands. 
Guava Islander is available now in 22oz bottles with six-packs of cans to follow in March 2017 across all 19-states that Coronado distributes to. The beer hits 7%-AbV and a nice hoppy 65 IBU so
get out there and it for yourself…
and when you do, be sure to let us know what YOU think.
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