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Gelato: Red Jelly
Our Rating: 3.56 / 5
Funky Fluid’s Gelato: Red Jelly is a confident, dessert-leaning ice cream sour built around raspberry, strawberry, and a softly creamy base. The balance stays intact as it warms, with controlled acidity, fine carbonation, and enough restraint to remain drinkable, even if it never fully escapes its red-jelly comfort zone.
Beer Name: Gelato: Red Jelly
Brewery: Funky Fluid
Beer Style: Ice Cream Sour (Smoothie / Pastry Sour)
Alcohol: 5.5%
Taste Notes: Raspberry, strawberry jam, mixed red fruit, ice cream mix
Serving: Can
Serving Size: 500 ml (16.9 fl. oz.)
Yo Jelly Legs; Let’s Funk It Up!
Funky Fluid doesn’t leave much to interpretation. The can says Gelato: Red Jelly – Ice Cream Sour, and the artwork leans so hard into red fruit that nobody asked follow-up questions. Funky Fluid has been producing this Gelato line for a while, and the format is familiar by now: a lactose-softened sour base, a heavy fruit load, and a dessert-adjacent profile. It’s brewed in Poland, canned at 5.5%, and very clearly meant to be drunk cold and talked about immediately.
In our glasses, the colour sits squarely in opaque raspberry-red. Not murky, not sludge-thick, but dense enough that light gives up early. Foam forms fast, pale pink and fine-bubbled, then settles into a thin cap that hangs around longer than we expected. Carbonation shows itself in tight pinprick bubbles clinging to the glass rather than lifting aggressively.
Aroma is direct and straight to the point. Strawberry and raspberry lead, with a broader red-fruit sweetness underneath. There’s a faint creamy note riding alongside, closer to ice cream mix than yoghurt. As it opens up, strawberry becomes more dominant and slightly candied, but never solvent-like or sharp.
When we take our first sip, there’s bright raspberry upfront, followed by strawberry jam, then a soft, rounded sweetness that spreads across the palate without too much weight. Acidity is very present but controlled, and enough to keep the fruit lively without dominating the creaminess. The Carbonation arrives in quick, small flashes, then steps aside. It drinks easily, and, despite a certain member of our review staff taking a dislike to strawberry, this sour certainly invites further tasting.
Is Jelly Just A Funky Fluid?
Mid-glass, the balance stays remarkably stable. The fruit doesn’t fade, but it does shift. Raspberry keeps the lead structurally, providing grip and freshness, while strawberry broadens and sweetens as the temperature rises. The result is less “fresh fruit” and more “set red jelly”, which doesn’t really come as a surprise considering the Gelato: Red Jelly name… or at least it shouldn’t.
The creamy component becomes clearer with warmth. It doesn’t thicken the beer, but it smooths transitions between acidity and sweetness, giving the impression of body without viscosity. Lactose does its job quietly here, rounding edges rather than announcing itself. The finish stays clean, with lingering red-berry sweetness and no chalkiness.
Carbonation remains consistent throughout. Fine, active enough to lift aroma and reset the palate, but never foamy or distracting. This keeps the beer firmly in drinkable territory despite the dessert framing. At 5.5%, the alcohol stays invisible.
From a style perspective, this fits best under BJCP 29C: Specialty Fruit Beer, but as with all other sours, they lack coherent representation in the BJCP Style Guidelines. The fruit expression is dominant and deliberate, the base beer is relatively neutral and supportive, albeit adjunct-heavy, and the overall profile prioritises flavour integration and delivery. It diverges from the guideline only in how little “beer” character is left exposed, which is a choice rather than a flaw.
On Untappd, the average rating sits comfortably high at 3.89 / 5, and the consensus makes sense. Our own scores clustered close together, reflecting agreement on execution, with a single outlier who, amongst our group, is the smoothie/pastry sour fanatic.
Red Jelly doesn’t stretch the format, but it executes it cleanly, confidently, and without excess. It does what it says, and it stops there.
- Viktor: 3.25 / 5
- Laurits: 3.50 / 5
- Jesper: 3.25 / 5
- Casper: 4.25 / 5
Our Average Score: 3.56 / 5
