Smooth Ninja - Boysenberry, Peach, Guava
Baa Baa Brewhouse

Part part sour ale, part fruit smoothie, and then another part compost, there's nothing sleek nor stealthy about the fruits that Baa Baa brewers put into their beer. Rather than a boysenberry, peach and guava infused beer, it's a beer infused fruit salad instead.

Pushing the limits of what beer should be, those questions arise with the beer as it seemingly crawls into the glass with a fruit preserves type of visual texture. Deep mauve in its saturation and rising with a dark neon lavender froth, the beer should probably be served with a spoon. A tangy and succulent fruit perfume rises from the glass and captures the nose with a reckless fresh fruit scent that wraps around tartness, creaminess and something of cider. Fruit sweetness hits the tongue with full impact, sharing a candied taffy, fruit puree, cobbler-like upstart.

As the sour ale slowly meanders across the middle palate, the fruitiness of raspberry, blackberry, plum, rhubarb, cranberry and fig all come to mind in an overt jammy way. The sourness underneath share a taste of green apple, lemon, lime, gooseberry, passionfruit and grape starts to cut through the puree and allows for a peppery tannic bite to add a hint of balance in the end.

Full bodied, but tangy, lush and playfully acidic, Smooth Ninja, the Boysenberry Peach Guava rendition finishes fruity and with a sweet-and-sour interplay with a medium length aftertaste of fruit-laced wines in a creamy tartness that'll have you begging for a toothpick.