Year of New Beer: Imperial Vanilla Black Currant Boysenberry Hill, Southern Grist Brewing (Nashville

Written By: Dion on 10/21/2018

An unbelievable nose that presents somewhere between raspberry truffle and freshly baked fruit pie. The berries are almost straight jam with a nice vanilla note increasing as the glass warms. Although the aroma would have you thinking sweet, this hits the tongue with the tartness of unripened berries and even hints of citrus. Vanilla can often be overpowering in a beer, but in this case, it provides a perfectly sweet, creamy balance to the sharp berry acidity, much in the same way a scoop of vanilla ice cream levels out a tart fruit pie. This is absolutely stellar.