Blueberry Fire
Cascade Brewing / Raccoon Lodge & Brewpub

sick to score this on tap. new one to me from these guys, not sure if its a variant of their acclaimed blueberry ale, or if its its own thing. either way its packed with blueberries, tart and funky, but thats not all, not by a mile. it also has lime zest, ginger, and a couple kinds of chili peppers, its oak aged, and its incredibly weird but also i cant set my glass down. violet color without a ton of body, lathery short layer of pink suds slowly fading back, pretty good clarity actually. the nose is tannic fruit right away, red wine to me as much as blueberry, and the spicy, earthy, almost juicy ginger, bold already. very little from grain, more sour than funk but both are there, and some definite minerality and pucker together, mouthwatering stuff. the berries dominate the front half of it, natural and grippy and tangy with the bacterial element, but then the ginger acts like the transition to the spice, hitting peppery and sharp, then disappearing to leave the sweet, smokey, and yes, quite hot peppers on the back end and in the throat, not over the top in terms of heat, but this is spicy for sure. the lime is natural and kind of cooling at the end, and the acidity is neat with the heat, uncommon and fun, and proportioned pretty well, this had to be a challenging mix of ingredients to dial in just right, but they pulled it off. light body, some fruit sweetness left at the end, very little malt to me, some wood, some vinous character, and some faint smoke to the pepper part of it, middle of the road acid as cascade goes. weird but awesome, this is really cool stuff.