Cherry Picker
Grain & Grit

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, from Small Batch Dispatch's September 2024 curation. My second beer from the Hamilton, Ontario brewery.

Sept 9 2024

Appearance: There is little doubt that this a fruit beer, as it's bright cherry red body screams the presence of the fruit. The carbonation is low but steady and while a solid finger and a half of head was produced, it did not retain itself.

Smell: I'm really not catching a lot here. I mean I think I pickup some cherry notes, but it's weak and it comes across as having that weird fermentation smell you get from spoiled juice. That said, it's overpowered by an only slightly stronger mild bready malt. I'm not going to hold the fermented smell against it, for it is a sour beer and I would think a degree of that is desirable. It's just not potent here, and warming doesn't seem to bring it out.

Taste: There we are, starts with a mild lemon and sour cherry note, that then double downs on said cherries for it's flavour with background of bready malt which is only really noticeable because of the restraining effect it seems to have on preventing the fruit aspect from getting out of control. It's rounded out with a very short dry yeast snap at the end which brings a restrained end to the sour note. Realistically, the only reason it doesn't do better is I don't pickup a lot of beer aspects here, which is kinda hard to gauge here.

Mouthfeel: The low carbonation is actually a boon here, as it mutes the sour note with that subtle malt background to prevent the palate from being overwhelmed. The transitioning is excellent as the second cherry hit really hits the point home and the dry note never gets out of control. The only issue is it really does limit the aftertaste to only the barest touch of cherry which has lost most of it's sour potency.

Drinkability: This stuff is absurdly easy to drink, and absurdly light bodied. Low carbonation means no gas, and while it's not exactly crisp, it's still refreshing and the sour aspect is potent enough to remain interesting. The weakness here, is it's a bit too light bodied, and gives more of a drinking a wine cooler vibe then a beer.

Final Thoughts: As with all fruit beers, I also ask the question, well why didn't you just brew a cider or wine with said fruit. The answer on this one was a good one, and that was because I want the malt to restrain the sourness of the fruit and to mesh the sour note with a sour beer note. This beer does a great job of doing just that, but lets be clear here. This is a summer drinker only (although maybe a cranberry variant might work out at Christmas) as it's just so light.