Shenandoah Boysenberry Lambic

Brewed by Shenandoah Brewing Company
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Alexandria, Virginia USA

Pours a haze of reddened orange; thin, bubbly glue colored foam. Aroma of boysenberry yogurt, pear, and toasted white bread with cinnamon; some band aid, extraneous obscure spices and solvent but no substantial funkiness. Flavor is only mildly tart and sandy with seeded berry sweetness; chewing a boysenberry seed. A bit cardboardy and quite dry throughout, with dusted over hints of white grape, white pepper, honey, apple, and doughy yeasts. Quiet and unassuming in complexity. Hints of clove and cherries in the mid palate, which seems quite fresh and novel in a why-didn’t-anyone-think-of-this-before kind of way. Palate is juicy and sparkly; medium in body. Cherry and boysenberry acids lacquer the finish in earthy dryness, almost enough to suggest a stray vegetable tone of beet and celery in the aftertaste. Call this a fruit beer rather than a lambic and this brewery has something pretty cool here. Thanks Ken!

12oz bottle. Pours a hazy, darkened orange-ruby color; off-white head with excellent, fine-bubbled lacing. Similar aroma to the Happy Holidays / Cherry Lambic: dry, strong fruit juice character (in this case, mixed berry, boysenberry, assumedly, and strawberries) and nothing sticky or sweet; certainly not traditional lambic (no funk, nothing beyond a breath of tartness), but again a really pleasant fruitiness with no cloying characteristics. Medium mouthfeel: lots of mixed berry juice / cherry juice at the front; a dry yeasty / dustiness at the core; well-balanced, solid fruit juice note, and dry enough to remain pleasant. Like the cherry lambic, I could drink a lot of this; some pittiness / grapes mid-palate. Dough and dust and lingering berries in the finish. Another solid fruit beer from Shenandoah.

Thanks to kmweaver for the bottle. Aroma takes me back right away. Growing up I ate boysenberries and currents right off the bush. Aroma is sweet and tart and unmistakable boys. Dark clear brown purple color with a small white head. Sweet fruit, berry slightly tart but more sweet. Ever so slight funk essence drying it out which is very nice. Overall very good.

12oz bottle shared by kmweaver. Moderatley murky semi-deep purple. Decent boysenberry and grape soda, there’s actually seddiness present, so it’s better than the strawberry, at least. Pasty, moderately tart, stale yogurt, very pallid and empty throughout, but the body is moderately frothy and chewy. Not terrible, smells much better than it tastes, but overall it’s not really that good.

(12oz bottle) Small white head atop cloudy amber body. Aroma is moderately sweet, strawberry, some pomegranate, light apricot, flowery, lightly tart. Taste is mild sweet, berry, light cherry, grape. Fairly tart without the sweetness the nose led me to expect. Light-medium body, some crispness, effervescence, fairly easy to drink. Not what I’d call a lambic, but a decent fruit beer all the same.

Thanks to hopdog. Pours a lightly hazy orange amber with a medium bubbly/creamy off white head that left a little lacing. Aroma of boysenberry, Belgian yeast ester, earthy notes and some bready malt. Flavor of more of the berry sweetness, tripel spiciness, dry for being a fruit beer, bready malt and some tartness.

Poured orange with a small white head. Aroma was tart fruit and funk. More tart fruit, funk, belgian yeast, and almost something I want to describe as red kool-aid. Finished very light, some decent tart notes. I wish this was just more...flavorful. Still good. Thanks ken!

12oz bottle acquired in trade with kmweaver (thanks!). Poured a medium and lightly hazy amber color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of lots of different berries with light yeast. Reminded me of some type of hard candies. Tastes of berries (but not as strong as the aroma). Very light tart finish. Thin body and dry finish.