Blueberry Crunchee
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

 

 

Very old can (>2years) that I forgot I had from a Southern Grist anniversary package. Hard to measure this honestly against any type of “pure” Berliner Weisse standards because this thing is so off the wall. So going more with a gauge of the drinking experience.

Absolutely gorgeous pour with deep, dark purple liquid — grape juice and fruit punch — and a creamy pink head of compact foam that turns to a latte film pretty quick. Little bit of spotty lacing. This thing looks thick!

Heavy almond, dry coconut shavings, vanilla, blueberry, and blackberry on the nose. Some granola and pie crust. A little powdered sugar and baking spices. Blind I would honestly be guessing this was some type of stout before sour.

The taste is where you really get hit with each advertised adjunct, almost in order. It tastes great with a pleasant sweetness that drops off quickly and reveals a little bit of pucker. Really not a beer but pretty damn tasty. Basically a melted pie that they’ve somehow turned into a drinkable liquid.

Not as thick in terms of feel versus how it looked on the pour, but plenty chewy. Silky smooth with a little sour prickle. Incredibly drinkable.

Definitely everything it advertises itself as being. That honestly had me pretty scared, but the finished product (at least 2 years later) is awfully tasty. Normally beers like this are fun for a half glass, but this one I’m easily polishing off on my own.

Murky dark purple color with a thin gray-purple hues head that’s short lived. Spotty lacing.

Big blueberry in the nose. A little coconut, a little cinnamon.

The taste follows closely. More sweet than sour, but tempered by the coconut

Medium bodied, very chewy feel for the style. Tight carbonation.

I’m sure many would appreciate this. The coconut isn’t my jam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picked this up at Other Half when it was released over a year ago and took a while to get to reviewing this. I've had a bunch of their other Crunchee offerings and although it's not on the same level as their IPA's, this was just as fun and enjoyable as those beers were. Regardless of that, if you're a fan of Berliner Weisse beers, this would be one to seek out as it didn't quite fit the typical mold of those!

Quite a lovely pour to this as the blueberry liquid stood out from the moment I let it out of the can. It was cloudy, somewhat dark, and slightly milky as it had a bit of dark, naturalistic sediment floating in it. Not a lot of head topped it off but what was present was light and fluffy as it complemented the liquid quite nicely. No lacing was left behind with the consistency and thickness of this brew being on the light side. Tons of blueberry, granola, pie crust, and tartness in the nose as the taste was quite earthy, crunchy, and juicy all at the same time. Lots of pie, compote, and muffin in the taste with graham cracker, oats, and blueberry jam all coming through as this fully warmed up. A bit of acetate and a easy, breezy carbonation kept this from being too heavy as this easily went down as a dessert in liquid form.

Not a lot of booze in this one and what was there was hardly felt. Love these crunchee beers as they have a lot of body and depth to them, on top of the pleasing fruit flavor. So glad that Other Half has brewed others iterations of this since this beer was released!

 

 

 

Neon magenta-red with a fuzzy pepto pink head settling to a thick collar.

Smell throws you off from the appearance with mapled granola, as taste brings the character of tart, gelatinous blueberry pie filling via a full, frothy body that finishes semi-dry, allowing a bit of currant paired with bruleed brown sugar to come out.

 

L - 1.5 finger pink head atop an opaque maroon body.

S - tons of blueberry, molasses, raisins, honey.

T - damn! Blueberries, raisins, oats, honey, molasses, brown bread, biscuity malt. No bitterness. Moderate-low sweetness. No booziness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - super unique, and god damn tasty sauce.