Imperial Boysen Bu
de Garde Brewing

4.75/5  rDev +3.5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

No date on the bottle so I have no idea when it's from, poured gently into two tulips. Pour is dark purple jammy looking with a purple/pink fizzy head that eventually fades. The smell is incredible!! Berries, funk, and a strong barrel presence mainly. The taste follows the smell. Super jammy berries up front with oak midway followed by the tart funkiness. Feel is medium and fizzy. Overall this beer to me definitely deserves 4.75 if not higher! Cheers.

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5/5  rDev +8.9%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Boysen berries for days. Nice tartness. Deep deep purple color. Smells like when I was a kid going to my grandmas to pick Boysen berries. Awesome beer.

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4.34/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Appearance: As others have noted, this is a massive gusher though I was able to save most of the beer; pours a very cloudy cranberry color, with a lot of sediment, as well as floaties and seeds; initially almost all foam, the head eventually fades without leaving much lace

Smell: Fruity and lactic, with strong boysenberry aromatics with a touch of lemon adding a citric edge

Taste: Assertive lactic sourness from the outset, with the boysenberry fruit building across the taste buds; citric lemon tones, through the middle, and a dry, oaky finish

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body and prickly, with low to moderate carbonation

Overall: Get the wild yeast under control here and this would be extraordinary all around; still, top notch

Thanks, JavaNoire, for the opportunity

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4.82/5  rDev +5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

So delicious. Has somewhat of a red wine appearance, like a very dark ruby color. Good amount of sediment, full bodied like other imperial bu's I have had. Nice lemon, yogurt, and funk presence with the boysenberries being the dominant flavor. Say what you will about de garde bu's not being overly complex, but their Berliners cannot be matched and I would take their Berliners over most american wild ales. No other brewery is able to incorporate fruit into their beer as well as de garde.

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4.61/5  rDev +0.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

This one heavily gushed, nearly erupted on opening. Once settled, the beer revealed itself as a deep dark red, with many little floaties, and seeds. There's a big head, and a little bit of lacing.

Smells super strongly fruity. I haven't had this type of berry, but it feels kind of like a cherry and raspberry hybrid based on the aroma. The fruit is all I get in the aroma, other than some light lacto.

Like most of the bu's, this is fairly one note but delicious all the same. There's an outrageous amount of fruit, bold and expressive and very tart, with a bit of the typical Tillamook funk and the typical intense acidity. This is definitely classic deGarde.

This is lighter bodied, with a very crisp and juicy mouthfeel.

Another banger from deGarde. Like a lot of the Bu's, I crave a little more complexity. I can't complain too much though, with how tasty this is.

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4.4/5  rDev -4.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Dark pink, murky color with pink head. Nice berry aroma with a lactic note. Taste is quite sour with the fruit more in the background. Light body and very dry. Another good Berliner from De Garde.

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4.17/5  rDev -9.2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thanks to jmgrub for sharing this one at the LA Beer Talk bottle share.

Pours a murky crimson red with a foamy reddish-tan head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace drip into the remaining beer on the drink down. Smell is sour with grain, berry, berry juice, and acidic aromas. Taste is much the same with sour berry, berry juice, and earth flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of acidity on the palate with each sip. This beer has a good level of carbonation with a crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a very good beer with nice fresh sour berry qualities all around.

Serving type: bottle.

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4.37/5  rDev -4.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

A voluminous pink head erupts and a smattering of head sticks around so I'm guessing it's not super sour. Body is a gorgeous deep red almost verging on purple.

The aroma confirms my thoughts of a lot berries in it based on the color. Sweetish jammy boysenberry.

The flavor is big on boysenberries with some purple grape, citric, and lacto. Tart, dry, light and bubbly.

Anotha stunna.

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4.74/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Poured from a b1, 2013 bottle into a Cantillon Iris Glass.

Appearance: murky, lots of sediment and boysenberry seeds. Dark, opaque Crimson. Minimal head.

Smell: Just loads of boysenberry. Tart, funky, dry and fantastic.

Taste: really tart, super berry forward and dry. The berry flavor was primarily berry seeds, not necessarily flesh. Got a berry jam note as I reached the end, but as there were actual boysenberry bits floating around in there I may have actually been drinking raspberry jam. The sourness was all lactic, like fresh cheese. Not much at all in the way of malt character. Just phenomenal.

Mouthfeel: healthy carb, very dry. Burp-maker.

Overall: Really fantastic. Still holds up well, if this is the worst beer of the share, as many expected it to be, we'll be in good shape.

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4.26/5  rDev -7.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Bottle from the March 2015 release.

Hiding like crazy, this is a purple beer with a purple head and has boysenberry druples for lacing. Overcarbonated as hell, though once it dies off, it highly improved. Bright, lactic sourness, big, fruity , berry punch with moderate lemony character. Mildly frothy. A little wheat. The boysenberry character is deep, fruity, mildly leathery.

The palate opens lemony and fruity with big berry character, a blend of red raspberry, cherry and a touch of grape. The mid palate has lactic sourness, a little oak, leather. A little wheat. One the carbonation does off, the palate hugely improves. Juicy with a touch of very tannins on the finish. Excellent.

With an exceptional base beer, the de Garde fruited berlinerweissbiers allow the fruit to shine. Your preference among the variants would likely be mirrored by your preference for the fruit itself. As yummy as boysenberries are, they aren't my favorite, and hence, neither is this beer.

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4.29/5  rDev -6.5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

On tap at the brewery during their recent release event and anniversary party.

The beer pours a dark, nearly blue-ish purple color with sensational head retention and lacing. On the nose, it's almsot like sticking your face into a bowl of fruit. There's also some vanilla, lemon and light sour, but the fruit aroma really dominates (not sure I've ever encountered this level of fruit intensity in a beer before). On the palate, while there's still plenty of fruit, the sour component really dominates. Not being a huge sour fan, the sour component wore me out pretty quickly, and I was unable to finish my glass. The sour component really dries up the fruit on the finish, and there really isn't even a hint of sweetness in this beer (finish is very dry and sour). Mouthfeel is pretty full, and there's no doubt this beer delivers plenty of flavor. The finish is long, dry and intensely sour. Alcohol is barely noticeable in this beer.

An interesting beer and obviously an impressive effort. This was probably my favorite of all the imperial Bu Weisse fruit beers that were available at the event, but even so, the sour aspect of the flavor component was just too much for me. Once was enough for me, and no need to try this one again.

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