Council Beatitude Boysenberry Barrel Aged Imperial Tart Saison

Like many others, my introduction to San Diego’s Council Brewing Company was through the brewery’s sizeable Beatitude Tart Saison series. The outfit has crafted over a dozen versions of the beer with a number of different fruits alongside a few dry-hopped installments. I have tasted a handful in the series and those all consistently showcase the fruit listed on the label with base beer that’s fermented with a blend of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Saison yeasts.

Last month, Council released a higher ABV Beatitude brewed with boysenberries. This Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Tart Saison pours a deep purple that’s near black in appearance. It certainly resembles the fruit with which the beer is brewed, that’s for sure. There’s a thin, perfectly white head when you first pour, but it disappears entirely once the beer settles in the glass. The nose is loaded with boysenberry aroma as well, a tart smell that’s equal parts raspberry and blackberry. You start to get a hint of what’s about to hit your palette.

I can only recall a few bourbon barrel aged sours that I have had in the past, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect here. What I encountered was an eye-opener. On the first sip, this beer delivers a punch you expect from a pour of a Cascade or Jester King fruited sour. It might be a tart saison by name, but this is a full-on sour ale. There’s plenty of tart pucker, but there’s also a ton of fruit flavor and some barrel character on the back end. It’s a very balanced, yet significantly sour brew. This imperial version on the Beatitude series is considerably more sour than the more readily available options. That’s not a bad thing at all, but if you think those are sour enough, this might be too much for you.