Blood & Thunder 2022
Barbarian Brewing

fairly certain it was the 2022 vintage i had on tap in here this weekend, as there are no 2023 raspberries happening yet. this is really good, one of their better recent sours, totally spontaneous apparently too, but quite piquant. pretty flamingo pink color with a soft haze and a lot of fizz but not much head collecting. the nose on this is only slightly funky, i thought maybe more wild with the barrel time and the spontaneous ferment, but it ends up weirdly clean and sour, lemony which highlights the high amount of raspberries, and not too sour to drink despite its up front intensity. i love the fruit on this, so natural and robust, but marrying really well into a tasty base beer too, light on the malt but not thin feeling, dry for being this fruited, woody without being heavy from it, complex but not challenging, opens with temperature really well too. hints of rose wine and strawberry in the taste, tartness from the raspberries with the tangy ferment is great, lightly farmy later on with a soft ester and even a little white pepper wrinkle. vinous, fresh, vibrant. the raspberry flavor here is pure and soft, and its nice with the subtly interesting fermentation profile. i bet this ages well, maybe some more funk will come out, but i was impressed with this one, perfect for this time of year!