This blonde is purple: Booberry Blonde by Four Day Ray Brewing

When I first landed at Four Day Ray's website, I thought I was at the the wrong place. There were only pictures of food so I figured the site belonged to a restaurant. Then I saw the Four Day Ray Brewery logo. I had indeed gone to the correct website. It is very odd to me when a brewery pushes their food to the fore and you have to go to another menu entirely in order to see any beer. I mean this was Four Day Ray Brewing, after all. Relegating your beer to a subordinate position, to simply being an accessory to food which comes in big, colorful photos just rubs me the wrong way.

Now, these Hoosiers aren't alone in giving food pride of place over beer but there aren't even glasses of beer in the photos to show any complementary relationships. There are many more photos of French fries than of lovely glasses of suds with big heads carelessly spewing enchanting beery aromas and filled with sumptuous liquid whose burnished colors are like a siren call to your tastebuds.

Perhaps that is how brewpub breweries survive these days. You lure folks in with the promise of chow and give them the hard sell on your beer once you've got them in your clutches.

As I have in years past, I attended Gencon this year which meant a midsummer trek to Indianapolis. I like to sample local brews while on vacation and even try to bring some back home, if I can. Just like last year, I went to a liquor store just a few blocks from my hotel to find something to tuck away in my cooler for sampling at home. The selection this year paled in contrast to last year with IPA's and various Belgian-style ales dominating the shelves. In the end, I returned to Madison with a six-pack of their Booberry Blonde, a "tart blonde ale" made with booberries.

My impression was that this was a summer seasonal as the can had something on it indicating the beer's high refreshment quotient being perfect for warm weather. But, upon closer inspection of the Four Day Ray website, I have discovered that it is, in fact, a year-round brew.

This beer looked wonderful. Why wouldn't you want to feature photos of it on your website? My glass had a big, frothy, pink head that had staying power. The beer was a lovely light purple and clear. I spied lots of bubbles inside. The aromas were all fruity beginning with a lemony tartness followed by hints of booberry.

The brewery was right to tout this brew as a summer quencher with its light body. Considering all of the foam and bubbles, the fizziness was on the mild side. The lemony tartness was solid but not deadly and the booberry was really nice. Lemon and booberry lingered on the finish before the latter faded to be replaced by a dash of hops. The tartness joined those hops to make for a really nice dry ending. My thirst was quenched.

As something cold on a hot day, Booberry Blonde works well. But letting it warm up to cellar temp is where it really shines as the booberry flavor becomes more prominent yet the tartness never attempts to overpower it. Just a great balance of fruit flavors and the perfect level of sour for my taste.

Junk food pairing: Booberry Blonde is all about subtlety and restraint and so mote it be with your food pairing. Keep the local theme going with some potato flavored potato chips from the Broad Ripple Chip Co., made just a bit southwest of Four Day Ray.

The Son of Dan's Irresistible Commands: Black Currant 22 by New Glarus Brewing

The impending release of a new fruit beer from New Glarus Brewing is perhaps the most prosaic beer news a Wisconsinite can hear. It has all the novelty of road construction in the summer. When isn’t New Glarus engaged in some kind of alchemickal diabelerie conjuring beer from fruit (and vegetables) and grain?

Back in July, if memory serves, I heard that the venerable brewery to the south was to be unleashing Black Currant 22 come August. On one hand, it sounded interesting as blackcurrant is not an ingredient commonly found in beer, at least here in the States. On the other, the last 2 or 3 New Glarus fruit beer creations have been cloying, syrupy, and basically undrinkable for me. I contemplated not bothering with Black Currant 22 and found myself with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other locked in mortal combat for my liver's soul.

Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: I want you to go out and kill! Kill! KILL!
Angel: WTF?
Devil: Wait. You’re not David Berkowitz. Sorry.

In this heated battle, it was the angel that proved victorious and so I brought home a 4-pack of the contentious brew.

Blackcurrant berries grow on shrubberies (Ni!) in northern and central Europe and northern Asia, according to Wikipedia. This explains why my past experiences with the fruit were exclusively from Polish jams. As the Black Currant 22 bottles note, the berries are on the tart side and I was hopeful that the tartness would prevail over sweetness here.

Black Currant 22 is a lovely deep purple. (Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh da-duh!) The foam is purple too but my pour didn't produce much of it and what little there was fizzed away rather quickly. I think it was clear but certainly not translucent. The aroma was pleasantly unexpected. There was the anticipated sharp fruity/berry component but there was also a sour-lemony scent too. Also not expected was a hint of leather. A faint grassy smell rounded things out.

Despite the paucity of foam, the beer had a firm fizziness to it. Blackcurrants are more acidic than their red and white cousins and this stuff proves it with its mighty tang. The body was medium-heavy and I expect that the sweetness I tasted underneath the berry tartness was from the malt. How to describe what blackcurrant berries taste like? The best way I can think of is cranberry plus grape. Yeah, I know someone of a botanical inclination will dismiss this as a puerile description of their true taste but it's the best I've got.

When I swallowed, I found that the tangy fruitiness lingered long after the sweetness faded. I suppose hops may have contributed a little bitterness here but everything on the finish tasted of the fruit to me.

I breathed a sigh of relief after my first sip. This is very tasty stuff and not a cloying fructose bomb as the tart berries and fizz combined to keep the sweetness at bay. The tangy fruit flavor is simply delicious. Plus its purple hue makes for a lovely looking glass.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Black Currant 22 with a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies Brownie Supreme and let the acidic fruitiness tangle with the chocolate goodness of the Chex Mix.