Blackcurrant Sour
Blindman Brewing

 

 

355ml can - their kettle sour, with black currant puree added during fermentation. No mention of the hops employed.

This beer pours a murky, dark magenta colour, with four fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and somewhat fizzy bubblegum pink head, which leaves a few instances of remote islet lace around the glass as it quickly sinks out of sight.

It smells of tart and fruity black currants, bready and doughy cereal malt, soured milk, a subtle earthy yeastiness, and some faint leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is tart dark fruit (the kind that flares the insides of your cheeks), grainy and bready pale malt, estery sour yogurt, faint yeasty notes, and more understated leafy, floral, and musty hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its wan-seeming frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, with just a touch of fruit acridity perhaps not toeing the company line, as such. It finishes off-dry, with the malt, lacto, and black currants dancing a nice, slow little waltz as the lights are brought down.

Overall - this is a pretty refreshing and engaging iteration of this series of sour brews from Blindman, the choice of black currants a judicious one here, as they grow well in our province, or at least they did in my mom's garden when I was growing up. Back then, I liked them mashed on ice cream - now, I like them mashed into beer. Times do change, but not by all that much, eh?

This is a wonderful surprise. I'm not huge into fruit beers, but the choice of fruit is absolutely perfect here. Tart, full of flavor and beautifully balanced - this is a real winner.