A farmhouse ale that pours reddish purple and tastes vaguely like sangria sounds like a beer that got confused about what it wanted to be. It didn't. It just got ambitious.
Biere de Blackberry is Manor Hill's other half of this week's Cellared Selection release, a Blonde Farmhouse Ale rested six months in French oak with blackberries. The result is blackberry jam, ripe plum, and nectarine with a subtle sangria-like character and a hint of vanilla, medium bodied with a dry finish that keeps it from tipping into dessert-wine territory. Bridging beer and red wine in one bottle is the kind of thing that should be harder than this makes it look.
Releasing Friday, July 24th, in 500ml bottles, part of a double release alongside Biere de Riesling. Wonderfully complex, genuinely easy to drink, no notes.