When I was an adolescent, I associated with Harry Potter. He was born in July, I was born in July. He had glasses, I had glasses. He went to a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry and I went to American public school. So a lot of similarities, all told.
As an adult, I find a lot of issues with J.K. Rowling’s writing, and even more so with her social media presence and retconning of the rules of wizardry (did you hear about this hilarious bit of DEEPEST LORE?), but I always loved the imagery she was able to evoke in her writing. Owls, wands, potions all became as tied to that world as incest, buggery and vexillology to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Today’s beer gives a dash of all three (not the cousin bangin’, sodomy and study of flags…the other three) with the now-defunct Council Brewing’s Broken Wand with Boysenberries — a foeder-aged dark sour with heaps of boysenberries added. A foeder, for those unaware, is essentially a big-ass barrel used to ferment a larger volume of liquid in one vessel than a regular oak barrel.
Council excelled at many things in their brewing, from tasty San Diego-style IPAs to delicate sour beers under the “Magic Factory” label. Broken Wand, which came in several varieties, falls under this latter category. The label is a heavy-lined mosaic Steampunk owl grasping a broken wand in its talons. From the label, “The giant wind-up owl, guardian of the Magic Factory and conjurer of darkness and truth, comes bearing the Broken Wand, which has turned this ominous beer into darkness.”
Pour out the potion (see? we got all three in here) to find a deep purple concoction, somewhere between Grimace violet and Naugahyde brown. Tons of carbonation, this beer lost nothing in the bottle.
The nose pops off with bright boysenberries immediately, with a tartness not unlike other fermented products. My mind instantly went to the yogurt cups with fruit on the bottom I had as an ankle-biter. Tart bacterial vestiges, dark berries and warm vanilla fill the olfactory sense.
The taste was magical, those dark berries did not disappoint with the deep, juicy, antioxidant-adjacent flavor and some underlying chocolate to pair with the vanilla. Think a chocolate and boysenberry pie with a big scoop of French vanilla ice cream on top.
Ryan Drinks beer 