Mixed Berry Ryeway is a well-made beer, I just don’t enjoy it. These two can exist covalently. The new Ford Bronco will probably be pretty high quality, but the inevitable flat-brimmed, Punisher logo, NotW , Instagram handle stickered fanbase will inevitably ruin it for me. The berries are those guys.

@revbrewchicago VSOR is arguably on par with VSOJ, which is to say, more apeshit than Britney Spears unchecked social media presence. So to watch Ryeway denatured from Steve Rogers supersoldier into this attenuated, dry, tannic, lightly-sour shell of its former self: it makes me long for the ultra aged Weapon X project of their deep woods series.

I enjoyed Strawberry Jacket, because it was a modification of something I already enjoyed. At its caramel lapels and jammy back vents, it was still ROSJ. Mixed Berry Ryeway is something else altogether. GM used to make “parts bin” cars and this is what that feels like. I give free license for Revolution to experiment, and make a berry Cutlass Ciera, but I will return that same Code Switch level of enthusiasm for it.

First of all, it looks like a god damn De Garde Bu. This is a barleywine with Lisa Frank fuschia foam. The cling looks like some red 5 brunch Sangria from a place with a name like “[something] & [something].” It’s always an ampersand. The nose has pushed the rye and barrel character beneath the tide like the final scene of The Last of Us 2. We are left flailing, gripping to the edges of the slick nautical wood, but this is an American Tragedy, and Dreiser looks on balefully.

However, many people will enjoy this. It is conceptually interesting and brewed impeccably: you just have to be onboard for the premise. When Final Fantasy XII came out and it was incredibly linear, and had a combat system that played itself, it was a well made game, you just had to accept the axioms of that reality. If you want an intensely cranberry-focused strong ale, then RevBrew has your bases covered. I just don’t know that bourbon and plums is what I need before I start my shift at the Baby Gap.

Mixed Berry Ryeway is a good beer, it’s just not good for me. Cleanup in Rompers, someone just threw up a boysenberry Old Fashioned.