Charms & Hexes: Black Currants, Tart Cherries, & Cranberries
Banded Brewing Co.

Came highly (and likely a little drunkenly) recommended by some guy at a liquor store in Western Mass. Poured from tallboy can into pint glass.

Distinctively dark red in color. Opaque. Short pinkish head, leaves thin ring. Aesthetically top notch for a fruited sour. Smells like maraschino cherries. Then, it tastes more of currant and cranberry than it does of cherry, so it almost feels like smell false advertising, but I can't bring myself to mind too much. I do appreciate being able to perceive all the fruits advertised on the can. Not really a given, so when it happens, it's nice. It's a little one note, though. You sip it, you get the fruit flavors, and then there is no taste anymore. I wish for depth. I wish for something to linger. It's good, but not great. Subtly carbonated. Medium bodied. In summary, it's a fruited sour. I like those, and this one's fine. Not my favorite personally, but I'm having a hard time criticizing it on any technical level beyond a personal lack of interest in reaching for a second can.

Just picked this up, canned 2021-11-23. Pretty tasty juicy combo on the sour side - I love each of the individual juices on their own - but lacking much malt of the crackery backbone to balance/add complexity. That's my bar for sours, so if not much malt detected I'm not a hug fan. Enjoyable, but I've been having some better sours lately.

 

 

I've enjoyed following the Charms & Hexes series, so when I found out Banded were doing one with not one, not two, but THREE fruit additions, I had to go out on a limb and just grab a four-pack. After all, most of the prior C&H beers have been worth a four-pack. They're generally-great fruited sours with nice treatment of the additional ingredients, and Banded are pretty talented brewers. Let's see how they do with this version.

Pours a gorgeous deep-red color with a light off-pinkish head that settles quite quickly to just about nothing in my glass. Pretty low on clarity, of course, thanks to the wheat used in the grist. Loving the hue of this one; it matches the color on the label quite well. Overall, though, this is pretty much a by-the-books kettle-sour pour when it comes down to it.

The nose here is more cherry and currant than cranberry, in my opinion, but I also think I've had more currant-forward sours than I've had sours with other fruits. Almost has a tart-ish raspberry/blackberry note to it, but that cherry is very strong and lends some density to the proceedings. A nice bouquet of lightly floral and grassy hops from the Hersbrucker addition lends some depth to this fruity sour beer. It doesn't seem like it's going to be as sharply acidic/tart as some others in this series (the Passion Fruit/Guava was pretty bracing, for example), so we'll see how that works out for them.

On the tongue, I'm impressed immediately by how authentic and juicy the fruit additions are. Super grassy and tart upfront without much linger or follow-through... the mid-palate has some tart cherry juice and cranberry flavors, but it's not as dry or intense as either of those juices can be on their own. I assume that has something to do with the wheat, the blackcurrants, or a combination of the two elements crossed with the fact that this is, y'know, beer and not (strictly) juice. That said, upon my second pour, I start to pick up more of the cranberry toward the end of each sip. It has a definite drying note to it. Slightly less acidic than expected, but a very true and authentic treatment of the added fruits. Heavier, wheatier, and more defined body than many beers in this style. Whether you like this is going to come down to how much you want a fruit beer vs. how much you want a "sour." I think it's a bit more of the former, with the "sourness" being a symptom of the fruits used. In other words, they didn't make this overly-acidic, and it benefits by having a fresh and complex palate instead of being a sour bomb.