Zomer & Passie

It feels like a bad joke, to me, that the new Zomer & Passie (Summer & Passion) made its way to my door on the final day of the wettest February on record. I’ve been looking up summer dresses for months and fantasising about how awesome my first non-stressed summer in my beautiful city will be… and yet, as I drink it now on pinch-punch-first-of-the-month the weather is still grey and far colder than it has reason to be.

So perhaps let’s see this as a token of hope from the future. Summer will come, and it will be the passion(fruit) hot girl summer we’ve all been waiting for. Do I actually like summer? Well, not up to now, but 2024 is the year to change my mind.

My initial thought of this beer was that it straight up smelled like passionfruit juice- tart, sweet and juicy with a hint of weizen thrown in at the end. I am excited, and it doesn’t disappoint! The first sip brings that sweet passionfruit with its tangy, sour twist at the end which melts into the emerging weizenbock flourishing. This rounds out some of the initial passionfruit punch, adding a creamy banana flavour and boosting the body of the juice. The passionfruit becomes more balanced in this stage, though it is obviously still very much front and centre, even into the aftertaste where it is rounded out by apple and banana flavour from the tango hops, along with a lemony tinge.

As someone who doesn’t generally like weizens, but loves the fuller body and oompf of weizenbocks this is my perfect summer drink. It’s 7.5% and it feels both satisfying and light- a medium body but the fruit really elevates it to something special. Maybe the Germans really are onto something when they pour thick Nektar (fruit juice) into their beers- I apologise for the decades of disgust I’ve voiced when faced with this- you were right!

So, bring on the summer! Oh wait, that’s more rain? Maybe just another one of these then. Proost!