Judge's Review: 92 Rating - Little Balls of Blue of Streetside Brewery

Little Balls of Blue by Streetside Brewery is being evaluated as a Fruit Beer (Category 29A) with a Berliner Weisse base style (Category 23A) per the 2015 BJCP Guildines.

This beer pours a light purple color with an opaque clarity that slightly darkens the beer. A frail light pink head is brief and quickly dissipates. The initial aroma consists mainly of moderately high intensity doughy notes with yeast, which is reminiscent of rising bread dough. Subtle blueberry fruit is noticeable as well as a slightly sour characteristic. A light sweetness is perceivable as the beer warms being a combination of malt, wheat, a very slight “funk,” and the fruit. Hop aroma is not noticeable in this beer. This beer has a moderately sweet flavor consisting of bread dough followed by low-moderate blueberry fruit. There is no hop bitterness or hop flavor, but a low clean acidity is what provides balance in this beer. 

As the beer warms, a wheat note is apparent as well as a slight apple fruitiness.  Balance is towards the sweetness and the finish consists of the yeasty character noted in the aroma and lingering blueberry. This beer is thin-bodied with plentiful, tickling carbonation, which also helps provide balance. There is no carbonation, astringency or creaminess present. Overall, I found this beer quite pleasant. 

I have had the fortunate pleasure of having very fresh Berliner Weisse both with and without the properly made syrups. Though I did find this beer to be slightly sweet (as if was served with two shots of traditional syrup as opposed to one, which misses the mark of balance of the Fruit Beer style), I thought it was well made and hit the hallmark flavor and aroma profiles of the Berliner Weisse style.