Recently, at my local bar I saw a new can of beer, Can On Ballz Gunpowder Tea IPA. Unusual, since I’d never seen a craft beer can in Serbia. It had the Dogma Brewery logo on it. Immediately, I grabbed it to learn more.
But the beer description was in alien Hungarian language. Expressing my disappointment at this, I looked at Nikola, a bar patron I knew, and gave him a look of mock exasperation.
“Serbian, OK, but this damn Hungarian language!?”
He laughed, took the can, and put it in his crotch.
“Hahaha, look! Can…ON BALLS!”
Yes, Can On Ballz is full of innuendo. But this beer is brewed with Gunpowder Tea, so the name has a more innocent pun (as innocent as war weapons can be). Also, it’s Serbia’s first canned craft beer. Partially this is thanks to Hungary’s Rekeyte Brewery, which collaborated with Serbia’s Dogma Brewery for the first time.
I pour out the can, and there’s grapefruit and other citrus aroma. Although I’m not familiar with Gunpowder Tea, I guess it explains the faint smoky, grassy touch. The beer is light. The aroma goes away quickly.
It tastes Hungarian, by which I mean very dry, almost chalky, and with a slight vegetable aftertaste. Something I’ve noticed with craft beers in Budapest. Perhaps for this beer it’s due to Australian Enigma hops, a descendant of Swiss Tettnang. I still haven’t learned to enjoy that dirty earthiness from many European-type hops.
Apparently, Enigma hops have red fruit raspberry tones. I’m allergic to raspberry, so it’s not something I’d like when I taste it. Between the Gunpowder Tea and raspberry-flavored hops, this beer is quite a mystery to me. Yet I still taste enough Citra hop fruitiness (also an Enigma characteristic) to make it pleasant. And at 5.5% ABV, it’s crushable.
Don’t ask me. Grab these Can On Ballz for yourself.
Had in can at Pivski Zabavnik.
