Jester King Brewery Grim Harvest

Grim Harvest

 

Jester King Brewery in Austin, Texas, United States 🇺🇸

  Sour / Wild Beer - Flavoured Rotating
Score
7.28
ABV: 6.9% IBU: 14 Ticks: 13
Grim Harvest is our farmhouse ale refermented with the “spent” blackberries from Jester King Nocturn Chrysalis.

Several years ago, we noticed that the refermented fruit from our beer still had a lot of character left in it. So we decided to do a second refermentation of the fruit to draw out more of that character. The inspiration for this technique also came from reading that Cantillon had once done this. The result was beers like La Vie en Rose (raspberries) and Detritivore (cherries). We have now completed this technique with blackberries for Grim Harvest. Although, to be precise, a few years ago beer from a second refermentation of blackberries made its way into Synthesis Analogous.

We’ve been looking forward to releasing the second refermentation of the blackberries from Nocturn Chrysalis (working title “Blackberry 2”) for quite some time, so we hope you enjoy!
 

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8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Reviewed from notes.
Can to tulip.
Appearance: ruby red color with a thin pink foamy head which dissipated nicely to leave some light lace
Aroma: blackberry sweet and tart scents, light funk, earthy sharp toned acidity, lemony tart further underneath
Flavor: combines the prior noted aromas nicely to a great sour to tart quality; mild finish of blackberries and earthy funk
Texture: medium bodied, leaning to being a sipper; light smoothness as the earthiness creates quite a dry yet somewhat grip on the tongue
Overall: nicely done sour saison with blackberries, I would very much love to have this again.

Tried from Can on 26 Feb 2026 at 00:23


7.2
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Can from Tavour. Pours mixed murk/clear; ruddy; transient pink tinged head. Aroma is slightly tart blackberry with an earthy note. Med body. It's not quite dry; mildly tart. Flavor is an earthy blackberry - just not coming together like I might like. Overall earthy/sour, moderately berry.

Tried from Can on 04 Jan 2024 at 00:54


7.1
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Canned 9/6/23, drunk 11/1/23. Clear, bright blackberry juice. Small, pink head fades steadily to light cover. Richly-fruited nose shows the butteriness and yet tempered acidity of the blackberry. Really something to be said for these second use pomace beers. There's far less acidity and you get a fun buttery character often (that's about as best as I can describe it, sadly). It's rich and aromatic yet still nicely mellowed. As far as the beer character, it definitely takes a backseat, at least in the nose, though what's there is clean lightly rustic. Can't get a clear picture of the yeast/bacteria character, nor even the malt. No flaw or alcohol noted. Thankfully, there's plentiful brett in the flavor, with very light lactic nuances and a soft, chewy, very dry flavor with a light body, but not too light for its lower abv (this batch listed at 5.3% as opposed to the initial batch). The fruit is, again, mellowed but rich, well-done and with juicy notes full of authentic blackberry flavor. That said, the yeast and malt are a bit lackluster in their appearance. Some chewier, biscuitier wheat and barley would go a long way here, while only minor brett suggestions show off the farmhouse character of the beer. But as a fruit beer centered around blackberry, it's killer.

Tried from Can on 01 Nov 2023 at 22:15


7.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

Can at home watching the Bs. Lovely crimson pour would use as blood substitute in vampire movie. Nose is blackberry and hint of citrus and funk. Tastes of good blackberry and light lime, some wood, wine grape skin, dental floss. Medium bodied. Quite tasty

Tried from Can on 23 Oct 2023 at 04:06


7.5
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Pours bright magenta into a tulip. White head with little retention recedes to hug rim. Blackberry and aspirin aromas. Tart with sweet blackberry and lactic aspirin upfront turning to mild band aid in the medium length finish.

Tried on 16 Oct 2023 at 22:25


7.9
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Bottle shared by Chris & Kelly at my 20k bottle share, 10/8/22. Batch 4, per JJ. Hazy pinkorange. Thin head, poor retention. Aroma of bready malt, funk, leaves, raspberry. Taste is raspberry, leafy notes, pale malt. Bright, mild sour. Nice beer, but, won the worst label contest for sure. Dark brown logon on black is, well, stupid.

Tried from Bottle on 09 Oct 2022 at 01:51


6.9
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle at share, thanks Ryan: pours clear bright red with a white head. Aroma is light funk, some blackberry. Slight metallic notes, not too sour, weird funky notes in there. underwhelming for a JK beer for sure. Still solid.

Tried from Bottle on 23 Nov 2019 at 16:34


8.2
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 9

Bottle, at bottle share. Pours bright red. Raspberry, blackberry, little watermelon, blackcurrant, little funk. Medium body. Good.

Tried from Bottle on 23 Nov 2019 at 01:19


6.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Refrigerated 75 cL brown bottle poured into a glass. Hazy dark pink with small off-white head. Aroma is blackberries, medium body, medium/lower carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is blackberry and some chaulk.

Tried from Bottle on 18 Sep 2018 at 23:55


7.1
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle sample at a tasting at Shapiro brewery. Thanks Ory. Reddish orange. Funk, some minerals, a bit of dust, fruitiness, some berries, sourish, medium-bodied. Very nice.

Tried from Bottle on 01 Aug 2018 at 11:43