The song everyone calls The Pina Colada Song has never been called that. Released in 1979, it is titled Escape, and the cocktail in its opening line supplied a nickname so durable that it effectively replaced the real name.

Adroit Theory has named a beer after both. Escape [If You Like Pina Coladas] is a smoothie sour, and the title goes on the front with the nickname in brackets behind it, arranged exactly the way the song itself is catalogued.

The brewery is clear that the flavors are not new territory. Adroit Theory has made a number of fruited sours carrying coconut and pineapple as part of a wider blend. What it says is genuinely rare in its catalogue is one built as an exclusive homage to the pina colada, with nothing else competing for the space. The notes it gives are creamy, coconutty and sweet pineapple.

There is a reason the combination holds up in a sour rather than a sweet base. Coconut contributes fat and aroma more than sugar, and in a beer with no acidity to push against it, it can flatten into something one-note quickly. Pineapple's sharpness is what keeps it moving. The cocktail solves the same problem the same way, which is why it contains a substantial amount of pineapple juice rather than being coconut cream on its own.

Smoothie sours are built for exactly this kind of impression, pouring thick and opaque, with the fruit doing most of the work and the souring keeping the whole thing from turning cloying.

The brewery's own suggestion for the beer is to kick back and think about Miami Beach, which is roughly the brief.

Escape [If You Like Pina Coladas] is available now at the Purcellville taproom in pours and crowlers, with 18 crowlers on hand.

Editor’s Take

The naming here is better than it first looks, and I want to give it its due. The 1979 song everybody calls The Pina Colada Song is not actually called that. It is called Escape. The pina colada is the nickname the public applied and then refused to give back, until the real title became the obscure piece of trivia and the nickname became the name. Adroit Theory has put the actual title on the front and the nickname in brackets behind it, which is precisely how the thing is catalogued in real life. That is a joke constructed by somebody who checked.

The beer underneath it has a decent argument too. Coconut is fat and aroma and very little else, and left to itself in a sweet beer it turns into suntan lotion with worrying speed. A sour base is the corrective, because acidity cuts richness, which is the same reason the actual cocktail contains a great deal of pineapple juice and is not simply coconut cream in a glass. Adroit Theory has spent years folding colada flavors into bigger fruit mixes. Letting the idea stand on its own was overdue.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Escape Is the Song's Real Title, Pina Colada Is the Nickname

Adroit Theory has put coconut and pineapple into plenty of its fruited sours before. This is the rare one where the pina colada is the whole point rather than one flavor among several, and the name follows the joke properly.

Source & Editorial