Barista-Berry Hill
Southern Grist Brewing Co.

 

 

This is a hard beer to review with numbers because, well... it isn't very much like a beer! It's more like someone blended a sour ale with their Jamba Juice or something. But then there's a coffee flavor? A raspberry sour with lactose and COFFEE!? You might think that the world has no need for such ridiculousness but you would be mistaken.

The coffee adds to the smell, flavor, and finish of the beer. With such a juicy, fruity, tart and sweet flavor up front, the coffee flavor adds a welcome depth to the overall tasting experience. Most noticeable during the finish, the coffee flavor comes to the rescue, protecting your tastebuds from a potentially cloying situation; almost like a palate cleanser has been built in to the drink, although it does still add a nice minerality to the flavor.

Received as a gift, enjoyed with 3 other people, one of which is a brewer, and everyone was pretty blown away by this one. Really a treat. Would love to have another in my possession to enjoy by myself. HANDS OFF MY BEER!

 

 

Sweet hell, this is a wild one. Yeah, I know it’s a Wild Ale, but this one is crazier than when Britney Spears shaved her head. I took a sip before I read the info on this beer, and I was kind of at a loss for words. What is the extra dry taste...? And then I put my Ben Franklin bifocals on, read the info about the beer online, and saw that it was coffee. Awesome! Dang thing is hella smooth like a chimpanzee on ecstasy. Then you get into that coffee flavor and it hits you over the head like John Henry swinging a hammer.

Rawhide!

Appearance: Pours the color of cranberry juice with a thin pink head that fades to a collar; spotty lacing

Smell: The coffee aromatics are very noticeable here and blend with the raspberry tones

Taste: Raspberry flavors forward with the coffee much more subtle on the taste buds than in the aroma; the lactose brings a raspberry creamsicle flavor that drives home the finish; moderately tart in the aftertaste

Mouthfeel: Medium body, but creamy, with low to moderate carbonation

Overall: A very interesting beer, bringing coffee to a fruited sour

The search for innovation in brewing takes us to some pretty imaginitive and unusual places. Southern Grist takes us there with two popular beer flavors: coffee and berries for a roasty and sour yin and yang.

Medium ruby and cast in a slight haze, Barista Berry Hill kicks off with a tangy roast scent. The character of the Nano Challa coffee brings a robust toasty, roasty and nutty aroma with the underling twang of dark berries, cider and wine. Light sweetness comes way of candied malts with a succulent fruit juice flavor and a mild taffy character.

And then the beer does a flip-flop on the middle palate as the sourness trumps the roast for a leading character of blueberries with a rosé wine, crabapple, lime, gooseberry and lemony tartness. While the roast begins to ebb and flow throughout the berries, the beer tastes like a sangria with a splash of medium roast coffee.

Medium light for sour ale, an earthy character only leaves a light burlap and cork-like character on the late palate. While the taste trends sour, fruity and refreshing, the character of coffee proves to be as much of a distraction as much as an element of complexity.

 

Really interesting beer. Poured from a can and I got fresh coffee just from the pour. Nice looking with purplish-pink haze and a modest pink head. Closer sniffing revealed berries and lemon beneath the coffee. This was moderately tart with bright berry and tropical fruit flavor, balanced throughout with coffee. Light bodied with a slightly chocolatey and coffee finish.

This is solid, but not as good as the passion-guava variant. berries come through reasonably well (though blueberry is always subdued i feel) Coffee adds an odd accent for me. not nearly as sour as the passion guava, which i loved. Overall tasty, but im gonna buy more of the other one

 

Pours a nice dark pink. Good head and lacing. Super interesting flavor. Upfront tart, blackberry, followed by a subtle, but definitely present dark roasted coffee. Great, unique beer!