Blackthorn
Steel & Oak Brewing Co.
- From:
- Steel & Oak Brewing Co.
- British Columbia, Canada
- Style:
- Fruit and Field Beer
- ABV:
- 6.8%
- Score:
- +6 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.65 | pDev: 7.67%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 3
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Feb 20, 2026
- Added:
- Apr 07, 2017
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
Blackthorn was first developed in 2015 as a beer to age in rum barrels with some wild bugs in order to utilize the jammy and dark fruit notes that the yeast can create. We made a 30HL (3,000L) batch and half of it was put on tap in the tasting room. It was so well received that we banked it to release on its own when we had some space to do so. The other half went into Caribbean Rum barrels, had some wild bugs added to it to sour it up, and ended up as a beer we called Tortuga. So this is the second release of Blackthorn. However, it’s the first time you can get it in a bottle. Blackthorn has notes of dark sweet cherry, raisin, and plum jam. It is best shared with a friend, or an enemy you’re trying to make peace with.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by DraftMonger from Denmark
3.21/5 rDev -12.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.25
3.21/5 rDev -12.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.25
Vancouver 26/7 2018. 65 cl bottle from High Point on E Hastings Street. What looks like a piece of cloth from a Scottish skirt compose the label.
Pours hazy Maroon with a small white head. Settles as a thin stable layer of foam covering the surface of the beer. Clinging to the side of the glass. Moderate lacing.
Aroma is sweet and dark. Caramel, bisquit and alcohol. Dark fruit like plums peeking in. Sour notes rummaging in the background.
Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily texture.
Flavor is sweet and boozy. Fairly strong sweetness followed by moderate bitterness. Aftertaste is heavy sweet and sugary. Lingers for quite a while. The alcohol is pronounced.
If you are into boozy sweet beer who does not try to hide the ABV too much, this might be for you.
Feb 20, 2026Pours hazy Maroon with a small white head. Settles as a thin stable layer of foam covering the surface of the beer. Clinging to the side of the glass. Moderate lacing.
Aroma is sweet and dark. Caramel, bisquit and alcohol. Dark fruit like plums peeking in. Sour notes rummaging in the background.
Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily texture.
Flavor is sweet and boozy. Fairly strong sweetness followed by moderate bitterness. Aftertaste is heavy sweet and sugary. Lingers for quite a while. The alcohol is pronounced.
If you are into boozy sweet beer who does not try to hide the ABV too much, this might be for you.
Reviewed by LampertLand from Canada (BC)
3.89/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
3.89/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Steel & Oak Brewing 'Blackthorn' @ 6.8% served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $7
A-pour is amber from the bottle to a dark amber in the glass with a small beige/off-white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-dark ripe fruit
T-big strong start , plum jam sweet , yet a smooth swallow
MF-ok/mild carbonation , feels full bodied
Ov-possible good beer
prost LampertLand
Jun 30, 2017A-pour is amber from the bottle to a dark amber in the glass with a small beige/off-white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-dark ripe fruit
T-big strong start , plum jam sweet , yet a smooth swallow
MF-ok/mild carbonation , feels full bodied
Ov-possible good beer
prost LampertLand
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)
3.63/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
3.63/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
650ml bottle - wow, the commercial description for this brew is just too dang complicated! I'm assuming that this isn't any form of the barrel-aged stuff, yeah?
This beer pours a clear, bright medium orange-brick amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some seriously pockmarked limestone cliff lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.
It smells of semi-sweet, bready and biscuity caramel malt, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, a subtle earthy nutty character, and very laid-back leafy, weedy, and musky floral green hop bitters. The taste is lightly toasted caramel malt, biscuity toffee squares, generic black stone fruit, more unheralded plain nuttiness, a bit of free-range brown sugar syrup, and more weak earthy, weedy, and slightly perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.
The carbonation is quite understated in its quotidian frothiness, the body a stoic middleweight, and more or less smooth, with a stilted creaminess trying oh so hard to get its ass off of the ground here. It finishes off-dry, a certain balance somehow being attained by the biscuity nature of the malt, and the lingering remains of the barely-there hoppy day.
Overall, this does come off very much like a typical strong English ale (I have no fucking idea where the fruit beer listing here came from - oh, wait, I kinda do). At any rate, easy to drink, and not too boozy, but rather plain in the final judgment, methinks.
Apr 23, 2017This beer pours a clear, bright medium orange-brick amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some seriously pockmarked limestone cliff lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.
It smells of semi-sweet, bready and biscuity caramel malt, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, a subtle earthy nutty character, and very laid-back leafy, weedy, and musky floral green hop bitters. The taste is lightly toasted caramel malt, biscuity toffee squares, generic black stone fruit, more unheralded plain nuttiness, a bit of free-range brown sugar syrup, and more weak earthy, weedy, and slightly perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.
The carbonation is quite understated in its quotidian frothiness, the body a stoic middleweight, and more or less smooth, with a stilted creaminess trying oh so hard to get its ass off of the ground here. It finishes off-dry, a certain balance somehow being attained by the biscuity nature of the malt, and the lingering remains of the barely-there hoppy day.
Overall, this does come off very much like a typical strong English ale (I have no fucking idea where the fruit beer listing here came from - oh, wait, I kinda do). At any rate, easy to drink, and not too boozy, but rather plain in the final judgment, methinks.
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