Black Raspberry Sour Ale
Deschutes Brewery

 

 

The sour aspect of this beer is a little underdefined - you will get some faint berry flavor, dry malt but there is very little tartness. Ends up tasting more like a fruited wheat beer.

Appearance – The beer is served a reddish purple color with a one finger fizzy white head. The head fades slowly over time, leaving wisps of lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell- The aroma of the brew is huge of raspberry and green apple. There is also a bready and cracker aroma mixed within. Along with these smells comes notes of wood and grass and a little bit of yeast.
Taste – The taste begins with a rather sour raspberry flavor that is very dry. There is some grainy tastes upfront with a bit of wood and herb mixed within. As the taste moves on the sour gets even more intense and the tartness of the brew increases substantially. There are more woody and some earthy notes that develop more and more as the taste advances. While it gets quite a bit tarter, there is a little bit of raspberry sweetness that develops more toward the end. With some yeast and hay that come with another surge of sour at the end, one is left with a dryer and sourer raspberry taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel- The body of the brew is rather on the thin side with a carbonation level that is somewhat lower. A bit more carbonation may have been better for the sour tastes, but the thin body was very well done and made it more approachable. Overall a pretty decent feel.
Overall – A bit too sour and tart for my taste buds, but overall it did have some nice flavors (and it also looks really cool…) A good one to try, and if you are a sour person one you may really enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

6/16/18 draft @ The Brew Kettle Hudson

 

Tasted in thin cylindrical glass from draft at Mickey Finn's on May 24, 2018. This sour is beery, beery good….oops we mean berry, berry good. Need we say more? With the addition of Black Raspberry Puree, this gorgeous ale is meant to be sipped and stared at. Cheers!

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store. Weird how we get these rarities from Deschutes way the hell up here.

This beer pours a clear, medium magenta colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and somewhat fizzy pink head, which leaves some random streaky and filmy lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of bready and grainy cereal malt, subtle dark berry fruity notes, a faint earthy yeastiness, and some plain leafy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, an understated raspberry and blackberry fruitiness, ethereal yeast, and more wan leafy, weedy, and musty hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its workaday frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and mostly smooth, with just a touch of fruity sourness taking a minor tithe at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the mixed fruitiness holding on amongst the remains of the lingering malt banality.

Overall - yeah, this one obviously did not blow up my proverbial skirt, as the kids probably aren't saying. Very thin, and lacking any sort of flavour punch that I may have been expecting from this otherwise heady brewing concern. Not a lot of raspberry, and certainly not noticeably sour, FWIW.

 

There are few flavors that usher in warm weather like fruit and sourness. The keen brewers at Deschutes give their summer seasonal beer such attention with a kettle soured ale with a generous heaping for black raspberries for a juicy and refreshing thirst quencher.

Simply named Black Raspberry Sour, the deep and hazy burgundy beer crowns with a light and broken froth. Nearly candied aromas of blackberry, raspberry and tart citrus decorate the nose along with a light corkish must. Fruit juices flood the initial palate as its ripe and radiant taste sweet malts play out lightly of cobbler and jam.

The middle palate also becomes quickly awash with black raspberry juices while the underlying taste of lime, green apple, white grape, melon and gooseberry applies a balancing sourness that easily contends with the sweetness and tightens the textures. Mild bitterness is peppery and of citrus peel while the fruit continues to sour and the late palate becomes mildly soda-like.

Medium bodied for sour ale, the beer's acidity never reaches peak sourness as its tone remains quite moderate even late on the palate. Becoming somewhat thin and watery instead of dry or crisp, the beer's impact is fruity and medium throughout. A medium length afterglow of the famed fruit definitely takes center stage wire to wire.