Mariner Venture Blueberry Sour

Mariner Venture Blueberry Sour Review

The cover of the Fall 2019 issue of What’s Brewing magazine happens to feature two people, but is actually centred on a glass of beer. There is a luminescent red glow around the glass, complementing the distinctive colour of the liquid inside. The woman holding the glass is entranced by it. It may be that she isn’t alone, because Mariner’s Venture Blueberry Sour is striking to look at.

Deep ruby red in appearance, the colour is reminiscent of dark pink with a bluish tint, leaning toward magenta. The colour comes from 1000 pounds of blueberries in each batch. That seems like an oppressive amount of fruit to clean up after, but we’re not complaining. Actually, since it’s blueberry season, we found ourselves snacking on the fruit pictured above while testing this beer. Unsurprisingly, that pairs well.

The beer has a classic fruit sour aroma. On the palate, it is tart and juicy yet somewhat creamy due to the addition of lactose. At the same time, it’s light.

Mariner’s Blueberry is tart without being agressively sour. It’s quenching, making it an ideal summer session beer. Despite its young age, this is one of our favourite BC fruit beers.

Every Thursday, Mariner releases a beer in-house as part of its year-round Exploratory Batch series. Sometimes the brews created are a bit hit with the clientele. This sour came out of that program, becoming popular enough to go into production as a packaged product.

In keeping with this, the product label includes the line, “Inspired by our drive to explore and discover, Venture doesn’t fit within any established style of beer.” You’ll find that this is also entirely consistent with the theme of the cover story in the new issue of What’s Brewing. Find out more about Mariner, their weekly release series, and the people behind all this at
whatsbrewing.ca/magazine

The cover of What’s Brewing Fall 2019 features this mysterious glowing elixir. View issue →