I'm looking at the label of what is commonly known as New Glarus Very Sour Blackberry, or VSB for acronym lovers, and I'm wondering how this beer began to be referred to as such, and why it continues. Under "New Glarus Brewing Company," it says "Style: Sour Fruit." The word "Very" does not appear at all. The word "Blackberry" appears only in plural form in the "Brew Master's Notes" section, where it specifies the use of Oregon blackberries. The word "Sour" appears three times - the aforementioned Style line and twice in the description, but never following "Very" or preceding "Blackberry." For reference, I've included a photo of the label below from a previous BA thread. Since its release, this has been a curiosity - why did this alternate name become the de facto title for this beer online?
I was just ranting about this in another thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-upcoming-beers-and-other-info.171077/page-28 In short, New Glarus made an announcement on Facebook last year before the R&D release, referring to the beer as "Very, Very Sour Blackberry". The bottle and official New Glarus website list the beer as R&D Sour Fruit. Somewhere along the lines, the name was shortened from the Very,Very Sour Blackberry reference and the nickname Very Sour Blackberry has been the official entry on this site, to my dismay as well.
Because "Fourth in our series of spontaneous sour ales. Fermented and aged in oak barrels - on yeast lies - with Oregon Blackberries. Refermented in this bottle - open with care. This is a Wild, Funky Sour Beer!" was too long.
The whole VSB thing really annoyed me as well. The bottle, the New Glarus website, and ratebeer always listed it as R&D Sour fruit. But VSB name took off because of some Facebook post, probably by a confused social medial intern. So when I was up at the brewery for the wild peach release, I asked the Brewmaster/Owner Dan Carey what he called last years release. He said "Sour Blackberry." So I guess we were all wrong.
New Glarus doesn't have media interns, nor do they have a media/marketing department. Deb and Dan (mostly Deb) do all of their own media/marketing. I'm sure that brewery staff occasionally make tweets/posts, but not without Deb's approval. They themselves called it "Very, Very Sour Blackberry" even though the label names is "Sour Fruit". I guess I'd rather know what the fruit is, so I don't mind the VVSB or VSB moniker.
The Facebook post with "Very Very Sour Blackberry" doesn't seem nearly as definitive as the label itself, no? Their website still has it as Sour Fruit: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/beers/ourbeers/beer/sour-fruit I would guess Dan Carey's reply to your question, DrunkAl, is a sort of compromised name now that he knows it took off in popularity under a different moniker. I bet he wishes he would've called it Sour Blackberry on the label now, especially with other fruit sours being released under the same series (and same label format). Pretty strange phenomenon. I can't think of another beer that has been referred to almost exclusively by a totally incorrect name.
The closest thing I can think of is Pappy VanWinkle Dark Lord, which is always abbreviated PVW DL. Which the bottle just says "2011 Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord", yet has it's own unique listing. Where the 2012 bottle says "2012 Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord", and is referred to as BA Dark Lord or BBA dark lord, and grouped in with all the draft only bourbon dark lord offerings of the last 9 years.
Actually if you where at this years event and saw the lady walking around with the little dog (who's name was Rocco! I got my pic taken with him because of our names lol) with the security vest on and the camera, she does their Facebook and twitter too I believe. And to answer the question the OP had, ask yourselves this gents would "very very sour blackberry" fit on that label? The label is standardized almost all the names of the beers on every single R&D have been shortened to some extent to fit the space on the label. More than likely the beer is called "Very Sour Blackberry" but they couldn't fit that or even just "Sour Blackberry" so they went with "Sour Fruit" this isn't rocket science.
I think their social media person just capitalized "Very, Very Sour Blackberry" by mistake when it was just supposed to be a general description of the beer.
On a related note, every time I see R&D Wild Peach referred to as VSP, my eye twitches. I need to relax.
