Style: Fruited Kettle Sour
Format: 473ml can
ABV: 5.5% IBU: 35
Date tasted: 28 Mar 2021

Final Rating: 19/50

• Appearance: 5/5
• Aroma: 4/10
• Taste: 5/20
• Mouthfeel: 2/5
• Overall: 3/10

Overview

What a name: “Blueberry Chocolate Coffee & Vanilla Sour”. By far the longest named beer I’ve ever had. This is a limited run season sour by the Collective Arts craft brewery in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (apparently in collaboration with Stillwater Artisanal, though I’m not sure to what degree). They have a history of doing limited edition and seasonal beers, but I’ve never tried one before. I literally have no idea what to expect despite the fact that I have enjoyed sours in my life simply by virtue of this crazy list of flavours in the name.

Appearance

The can is weird. I have no idea what there’s a guy with a rainbow wormwhole to space instead of a face. At first I thought each colour might be one of the flavours in the name of the drink, but there are way more colours than there are flavours, so I have no idea what that means. Strange and confusing labels seem to be a thing around here for craft breweries though; a lot of them seem to do it.

The beer itself is red. By which you might think I mean the colour is similar to that of a Red Ale or Lager, but I mean it’s literally red. It looks like grape juice almost, only hazier and thicker. Seeing this purlish-crimson head was also a bit awkward, but it dissipated almost instantly.. This has not helped prepare me for what to expect at all, but it’s certainly different and interesting.

Aroma

I know this will be a shock, but on the nose it has strong scents of dark chocolate, blueberries and vanilla, with a faint undertone of coffee. The coffee is really subdued whereas the dark chocolate really dominates. There’s something about it that doesn’t seem quite right. It’s almost too sweet smelling, and the chocolate almost seems off.

Taste

The second it hits the tongue, it’s just tart. It’s not like it’s particularly strong either – rather a fairly middling tartness that just disguises all the other flavours. It then mellows into a bit of a mess of blueberry and vanilla followed closely by an earthy vanilla aftertaste, with almost no hint of coffee except that slight bitter acidity you get in the dregs. It’s interesting how the chocolate dominated on the nose whereas in the taste it’s barely noticeable.

Mouthfeel

Fairly mild carbonation and pucker, but crisp and clean as it goes down. Nothing particularly amazing.

Overall

As a disclaimer, I’m not generally a big fan of sours, though I don’t particularly dislike them either. I picked this up anyway because I was intrigued by the flavour pairings but I really do think it’s trying to do too much and coming up short. The flavours aren’t balanced, and it’s also not particularly sour either. It’s drinkable, but I wouldn’t buy one again myself.

References:

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