Yoberry Puts Cocoa Nibs Where the Fruit Usually Goes Alone

Strawberry and marshmallow would have made a straightforward pastry sour. Hitchhiker added cocoa nibs to the conditioning tank as well, which pulls a 7 percent fruit beer somewhere closer to a campfire.

• Style: Pastry Sour
• Release Date: 2026-10-02
• ABV: 7.0%
• Hitchhiker Brewing Co. (Pittsburgh, PA)

Three things went into the conditioning tank with this one, and the third is the one worth stopping on.

Yoberry is a 7 percent pastry sour from Hitchhiker Brewing Co., brewed with oats and wheat and then conditioned on strawberry, cocoa nibs and marshmallow. The first and third of those are unsurprising in the style. Cocoa nibs are not.

Conditioning happens after fermentation, which means these additions are not being converted into anything. They go in whole and the beer takes on what it takes on. Strawberry and marshmallow point in an obvious direction, toward the dessert end of the sour category where the fruit is heavy and the finish is soft. Cocoa nibs are crushed cacao beans before any of the sugar and milk of chocolate-making gets involved, so what they contribute is bitterness, a dry roast and a faintly nutty character rather than sweetness. Against strawberry, that is closer to a campfire than a fruit stand.

The grain bill supports the soft half of that equation. Oats and wheat are the standard route to a full, creamy body in a sour beer, and both bring proteins that hold texture in a way barley on its own does not. At 7 percent there is also more weight here than a fruited sour usually carries.

The name suggests a frozen-yogurt reference, though the brewery does not spell one out. Whatever the intent, the ingredients land somewhere less tidy than the name implies.

Yoberry is listed for cans and draft on a rotating basis. It is available for online ordering now, with pick-up beginning Friday, October 2 at Hitchhiker's Mt. Lebanon and Sharpsburg taprooms.