Dragon Fandango by Toppling Goliath Brewing Company is a fruited sour beer that highlights the kettle souring brewing technique. Fresh dragon fruit, mango and passion fruit flavors are consistent from start to finish, with restrained acidity. This article covers a review and relation to Wayne Knight as a television and movie actor reference.
Technical Details for Dragon Fandango
- Beer Name: Dragon Fandango
- Beer Style: Sour-Fruited
- Brewery: Toppling Goliath Brewing Company (Decorah, IA)
- Brewery website: https://www.tgbrews.com
- Purchased: Cellar Wine & Spirits in Norman, OK
- Tasted: 6/14/22
- Glass Used: Rastal Teku Stemmed Beer Glass 14.2 ounces from Score Glassware
Dragon Fandango Scoring Categories
Beer Review Toppling Goliath’s Dragon Fandango Scoring Categories:
- Can Design: Jurassic Park is now being advertised on beer cans, what a country
- Appearance: dark ruby red 6/6
- Aroma: tart dragon fruit up front, mango and passionfruit middle, subtle lime note finish 22/24
- Flavor: dragon fruit and passion fruit welcome you at the front door, mango takes you on a tour of the house, Citra hops kick in nicely while checking out the backyard with oranges and tropical fruits, very tangy finish 38/40
- Mouthfeel: sweet but not cloying, cleansing, creamy, zippy, tart from start to finish 9/10
- Overall Impression: one of the best sours this blogger has had in the last eighteen months. Very fruity, restrained acidity, and the late addition of Citra hops ties the whole package together. 19/20
- Total Score: 94/100
- Top drawer fruited kettle sour is memorable due to highlighting all the tropical flavors of dragon fruit, mango and passion fruit. Fandango series of sour beers from Toppling Goliath continues to evolve and improve with each new release.
Brewery Background
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company (TG) is located in Decorah, Iowa and opened in 2009. Founded by Clark and Barbara Lewey after a very successful run in the home brewing market. TG focuses on hazy IPAs and barrel aged stouts. Current beer portfolio includes forty beers that rotate throughout the calendar year. Have strategically expanded distribution to thirty states in the USA as of 2023.
Beer Advocate named TG the #2 brewery in the world. TG’s Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout has held the title of #1 rated beer in the world since 2015 (current Untappd rating of 4.83 out of 5.00). Hazy IPAs and barrel aged stouts are TG’s forte, and their sours are improving on a daily basis due to unique brewing techniques and using top notch ingredients. TG gets a ton of beer geek hype across the internet, in magazines and in beer stores. Agree the hype is warranted, due to the TG beers I’ve tasted have been extremely good and complex. TG is very active in the social media market with timely posts on Twitter and Instagram.
Due to the annual rotation of forty beers, TG has focused on improving their “flagship” beer recipes, by tweaking with new hop profiles and adding fruit. Structures Brewing has a similar approach in Bellingham, WA. I’m now wondering why more breweries don’t follow this business model. Best guess is that most breweries don’t have solid flagship recipes that enable tweaking and testing during a calendar year. Nothing wrong with trying subtle changes to a baseline product, enabling the beer geek community to have debates about special releases and best batches.
Dragon Fandango Background
Toppling Goliath currently brews the following Fandango beers:
- Cherry Fandango – 5.1% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.19
- Dragon Fandango – 4.2% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.21
- Pineapple Papaya Fandango – 5.1% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.18
- Strawberry Shortcake Fandango – 5.8% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.17
- Key Lime Pie Fandango – 5.6% ABV, Untappd Rating 3.98
- Berry Patch Fandango – 5.3% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.23
Fandango sour series has had six different iterations brewed to date. Currently on a mission to find the Key Lime Pie and Berry Patch versions to work on expanding my sour beer palate.
Actor Comparison for this Libation
Television Gig
Wayne Knight became a household name, due to playing the role of neurotic mailman “Newman” on the television series Seinfeld, from 1992-1998. Due to appearing in forty-four memorable episodes, most sitcom fans have a different perspective on how to interact with their mail carrier. Newman showed no morals in trying to bilk a decent record collection from an old man. Found a way to turn into a freelance verbal poet at a local bookstore. Showed his New York Mets fandom side, during an argument with Keith Hernandez.
Was the criminal mastermind in helping Elaine Benes relocate an annoying barking dog. Crafted a foolproof and profitable plan on returning empty bottles for $0.10 deposits, until his best friend Kramer helped Jerry with a golf club collection. Had a hidden addiction to Kenny Rogers fried chicken. Most importantly, Newman was a thorn in Jerry Seinfeld’s side for six glorious seasons and never wanted to lose at the game of Risk.
Movie Gig
Knight decided to take his acting gig up a notch in the summer of 1993, and was cast as Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park. Nedry is a disgruntled computer programmer working at InGen. Due to being greedy and having a chip on his shoulder, he decides to steal dinosaur embryos for InGen’s rival corporation (BioSyn), and pocket a cool $1,500,000 for his efforts.
In order to pull off the heist, he shuts down the entire island’s security system. After grabbing the embryos and placing them in a fancy Barbasol shaving cream can, mother nature intervenes and causes Nedry to crash his get away Jeep. As he gets back into the Jeep, he is introduced to a juvenile Dilophosaurus. The young dinosaur spits blinding venom into Nedry’s eyes. The rest of that scene caused every kid seeing Jurassic Park in a theater, to realize that a PG-13 movie rating had changed in the early 1990s.
Six Degrees of Separation
Due to Knight’s acting skills in one of the biggest monetary grossing movies ever released, its important to remember three things. First, don’t make your IT representative angry at work. Second, take that rep out for happy hour at least once a quarter during the working year. Third, have a can or two of Dragon Fandango, to remember how Jurassic Park started as a great movie franchise and to never underestimate a real or fictional dragon ever again.
Are you interested in finding this beer? Check out this article that tells you how to locate great beer near you.
Cheers and keep it classy everyday!
