Shadow Factory: Boysenberry
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

Appearance: a beautiful ruby-purple with some haze and a spritzy, pink head that fades quickly, remaining only at the edges of the glass.

Aroma: very mild fruit. The tartness is detectable but at low levels. The fruit, lacto sour and funk are all present but are all restrained, none of which are inviting.

Flavor: sharp acidity followed by a light funk. Much more sour than the aroma implies. The boysenberries come in at mild levels and late in the finish. The best boysenberry flavor comes in about a minute later in the finish – literally - and then takes on the aftertaste of eating a spoonful of boysenberry jam.

Mouthfeel: very thin – water density, but as expected for a beer this tart.

Overall: very good but not great. The cran-razz Shadow Factory was superior in all aspects. I’m glad I got to try this variant, but I would opt for the cran-razz or another variant before trying this one again. This beer could be improved by being more fruit forward and improving the aroma. It is certainly worth trying nonetheless, but order the smaller pour.

one of the best black project beers to date. awesome they are doing a whole bunch of fruited versions of this, but this has definitely been my favorite so far. deep purple in color, lavender more specifically, creamy and thick, with a tall and lasting head on it, really pretty glass of beer. has a definite berry aroma, almost blackberry jammy rather than the sweet and tangy boysenberry, but i am less familiar with that fruit in the raw form, so blackberry is what keeps coming to mind. some nice pucker and funk from the wild yeasts, seemingly more forward in this one than in other variants i have had, almost piquant in the nose. plenty of fruit flavor here too, ripe and juicy, dark but summery, highly dosed obviously, but not so sweet that it overwhelms the yeasts. neatly, there is also a cool grain flavor here, seemingly wheat based, but rather substantial and fittingly creamy. not often you get this kind of texture in sour(ish) beer, and i think that is one of its greatest assets. sour enough, refreshing, but still drinkable. falls apart just a little bit when it warms up, the wild yeasts are a bit weird, but overall this is tremendous beer, and hopefully a sign of things to come from these guys, who have a little more hype right now than their beer warrants, but it seems to be moving in a great direction. shadow factory is an awesome beer, no matter what fruit ends up in it!

edit: so they did an aronia berry edition of this which is not yet listed here independently but is the best of the shadow factory lot! deep purple and medicinal astringent and elderberry-esque so tasty and awesome, honest use of a rad fruit. the best one of these to date...