Blueberry Ginger Sour Returns Under a New Name, Cobalt

A returning beer with a new name on the can: Nonsuch Brewing Co. has brought back its Blueberry Ginger Sour as Cobalt.

This is a rebrand rather than a reformulation. The Winnipeg brewery introduces it plainly - "Blueberry Ginger Sour is back as Cobalt" - and the beer behind the new name is the same 5.4 percent fruited sour ale. Nonsuch describes it as refreshing and fruit-forward, approachable and smooth, with what it calls a gentle kiss of ginger.

The ginger is the detail worth holding onto through the name change. Nonsuch specifies real ginger root, which is a different proposition from an extract or a flavouring. Fresh ginger contributes a dry, slightly peppery heat that tends to show up at the back of a sip, and in a fruited sour it does useful work against the sweetness the fruit brings. Paired with blueberry, which is soft and jammy on its own and can go flat without something to push against, it gives the beer a finish.

Cobalt is a deep blue, and the can has gone the same way - a dark blue wrap with pink line-drawn florals, a departure from the orange the new Marzen arrived in. The name is the more interesting change. Blueberry Ginger Sour described the beer accurately but left it hard to ask for by name, and shifting to Cobalt gives a returning favourite something to be recognized by beyond its ingredient list.

It would do well alongside something with chili heat, where the ginger has company and the fruit has a job.

Cobalt is available now, with pickup from the bottle shop at 551 Osborne. The release comes ahead of the brewery's eighth birthday celebration on Saturday, September 26 at 125 Pacific Ave.