Cucumber's a fruit, right? A delightful refreshing drop, 8 Wired's now iconic Cucumber Hippy Berliner may be the best-known example of a fruit sour beer.

This fast-growing category has come a long way in recent years, with sours tending to be less mouth-puckering acidic and dry, thanks to brewers' fine-tuning. The curious thing is that humans actually prefer acidic tastes to the traditional bitter taste of beer - think of a refreshing lemonade, for example. Add a little fruit to your beer, and you've got a great drink that can be an aperitif or food match in much the same way as wine or cider. 

With combinations like pineapple and mint, mango and raspberry, guava and passionfruit, Deep Creek's Tiki series offers a profile for every palate. Sawmill's Passionfruit Sour is another beer worth sampling, as is Kereru's Feijoa Weisse.