I’ve become a huge fan of Southern Tier. I absolutely love their Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale. Their IPA, porter and harvest are also fantastic. So when I saw a Mystery 12 pack for sale at my local “candy store”, I couldn’t pass it up.

On the box, three of the four beer styles are listed; the fourth being the mystery beer. I don’t know if they make different mixes, but this box was labeled as containing Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale, the IPA and a raspberry wheat. Now, you may know by now my feelings on fruity beers, but I was feeling lucky and I really wanted to know what the mystery beer was. I was hoping for something I’ve never tried before. I was wishing for the imperial coffee stout called Jah*va.

It turned out that the mystery beer was their dark porter. I like that porter, so I wasn’t that disappointed despite that I was hoping for something new. I then chilled a pair of each for the weekend.

I decided to start off with the raspberry wheat. I wanted to get them out of the way clearing the path for some Extraordinary and IPA bliss.

Here comes the big surprise… the raspberry wheat was fantastic! No, I’m not kidding. I had my second one the next day to make sure I wasn’t just incredibly thirsty the day before. (plus I wanted to photograph it for Hop-Talk)

This beer poured a light amber color, with a short, fine bubbled head. It tasted like beer. By this, I mean that it tasted primarily like beer with hints of raspberry tartness in the background. It was incredibly thirst quenching. As I finished the beer, the raspberry tartness seemed to turn to a raspberry sweetness. I thoroughly enjoyed this beer on an unusually hot afternoon back in October.

Southern Tier has done it again; they continue to impress me.

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