Blackberry Ale
Nashoba Valley Brewery

This beer was picked up in August, 2012 at Nashoba Valley.

Domed near-white head. Cloudy greenish yellow color. Leaves a blanket of lace on the glass.

Starts with a smell similar to a wine cooler. Lots of berry.

Very sour. Thin bodied and fizzy. Honestly, I find this to be unpleasant. It is, to me, like a poorly made lawn mower beer. I do not detect any berry to the favor in this. The aftertaste is mercifully brief.

Got this one from the parents after a visit to the winery.
Pours a clear golden yellow with moderate white head. Smells like so many other bad fruit beers, vaguely sweet without substance and a bit perfumy. Tastes like potpourri steeped in lager. Would not seek this beer. After having several of Nashoba's beer offerings, I would stay away.

Knowing that this brewery has trouble producing brews that generate a good-sized head, I poured this into a stemmed pilsner glass in the hopes it would help generate some kind of head. It did, about one-finger in size, but it faded quickly.
Clear gold appearance. White head fades to a film fast.

Aroma of blackberry is definitely present. If I didn't know it was blackberry they used, I would have guessed raspberry and blueberry.

The tastes matches the aroma with a faint malt backbone. Drinks like a fruity malt beverage (Mikes), just not quite as sweet.

Mouthfeel is crisp and thin, yet nectary. Almost has some additional texture to it....from the berries?

Drinkability is just fine but the taste could get old quick.

Light fizzy head clear amber orange wheat color.

Nose of sweet malt extract, light malts, little skunk, hint if berry fruit extract.

Taste is similar, light malt extract, bad syrupy flavors, light malts, a little musty ich. A strange bad flavor. Some of the light fruit like flavors from a bad macro style fruit beer.

Very light body little carb.

drinkabilty is pretty bad too, with all the weird lingering flavors, especially the bad bitter taste. Not a very dry finish either.

12oz bottle poured into a Portsmouth tulip. Got this bottle from a friend who said he picked it up at the brewery...supposedly this has been retired for a while. Perhaps unretired/re-released?

A - Pours a pale and thin looking cidery orange gold. Carbonation seems light with only a thin soda-like foam cap resulting ultimately in a thin white collar.

S - Smells spicey and fruity, although I can't identify this specifically as blackberry. Some light malty base - grainy and lightly sweet. Perhaps some cinnamon.

T - Berry is much more forward in the flavor and more readily identifiable as blackberry. Still picking up a hint of cinnamon and now getting some graham cracker...almost like a liquid berry pie.

M - Thin body with lightish to mid-level carbonation. Residual spice and berry flavor after the swallow.

D - A bit more body and carbonation would help this one quite a bit. Berry flavor is interesting and mostly enjoyable, but it still has a nagging "off-ness" about it.

Pours a semi-cloudy orange/tan color leaving a thin faintly purple head that disappears quickly. The aroma is sour grapes, musty blanket, blackberry, honey, and lemon grass. The taste starts tart but moves to a sweetness like candy a sweet tart in partcular, then you quickly get a hay, powdery, lactic mouthfeel on the palate. The finish is dry very carbonated similar to a fruit wine with heat from the alcohal overall a decent brew and pretty refreshing.

Poured into imperial pint glass. A dark cloudy amber, with a bubbly head that disappeared rapidly. Looked kinda like an unfiltered wheat due to the cloudiness. Initial aroma had hints of berry, with a slight aroma of green olives. Later changed to smell more like hard cider with berry flavoring. Tasted very similar to a hard cider. Same dryness, but also had definate sweetness with very small amounts of berry. Ok in the mouth, a little off cause of the dry, but easy to drink. Definately woulda pegged this as a cider not an ale if I hadn't known better.

12ozer bought as a single from Julio's, Westboro, MA.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, 1/2" off-white (with a purplish tinge) head over the somewhat cloudy light amber brew. Head self-destructs in scant moments, only a light partial coating of filmy small bubbles remains, which laces minimally at best. Aroma is off fruit and alcohol. Taste is blackberries upfront, with a pleasant tartness in the middle, and closes somewhat dry. Mouthfeel is okay, and drinkability is not so great for me, but could see where someone would go for it. Kind of reminiscent of a wine cooler, but the flavor works okay, have to give props for that. That aroma kills me though.

A - Golden/yellow with almost a purple hue, bubbly white head

S - The smell, for me, the best part. Lots of berry aroma with some malt

T - I really didn't like the taste of this beer at all. It was way too sweet and un-beer-like. Could have used a lot of wheat to make it better

M - I didn't care for the mouthfeel either, really sweet and sticky in the back of your throat

D - Good appearance and smell but the flavor just wasn't for me, I'll pass next time

It's purple. It's purple like a purple-nurple. It's purple like the cloak of the Roman Imperials. It's purple like a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater.

Poured a lighter purple. But towards the bottom of the glass thicker purpleness poured out making the bottle even deeper purple. Big fluffy head that was tinged (yep, you guessed it) purple. Little bit of purple syrupy strips throughout the lace too. All-in-all it was kind of neat to see a purple beer.

Nose is sweet and full of fragrant fruit. Like sticking my head in a fresh basket of berries would be like.

Taste is very sweet and fruity. Got a bit too much of tart and tnaginess as well. Can't find much in the way of malts or hops. Just all the blackberry. Kind of like eating slightly unripe and green blackberries. Lots of sweet and tart.

Mouthfeel is fairly full bodied and syrupy. Kind of odd for a beer.

Honestly, very tough to drink. Forced my way through my glass so it would not go to waste.