Reviewed: Pure Project Electric Shadow
Official description: With the tartness of organic raspberries and kettle souring adding an electric pop of flavor, this beer dives into the shadows with the help of organic blueberries and hibiscus. Deep red in color like a classic fruit punch, Electric Shadow pulls you into the dark side with the interplay of bright tartness and sweet fruit that excites the senses.
Pure Project Brewing – Pure Project Electric Shadow – 16oz can served in Rastal Harmony glass – 8% ABV
Background
Rarely do new breweries impress at the level of Pure Project. I was inside the brewery’s tasting room for their first day open to the public in early 2016. Each beer I had on tap then was outstanding. Fast forward to today and Pure Project has been a runaway success with a beautiful new tasting room adjacent to Balboa Park in San Diego. Pure Project has tremendous depth in their portfolio producing excellent New England-style IPAs, pale lagers, saisons, and sour ales such as the phenomenal Roes Red.
Review
I’m reviewing Electric Shadow from a 16oz can that sells for $25/4-pack. On the bottom of the can is an easy-to-read packaging date of 10/9/19, which places it about 6 weeks old at the time of review. Into my glass, Electric Shadow is a deep cherry red color with cotton candy pink-colored foam. Bringing up the beer, its aroma bursts forth with raspberry popsicle, fresh flowers like rose and hibiscus, vibrant cherries, and hints of watermelon. There’s hardly any stinky funk that is common to kettle-soured ales.
The flavor is milky and intensely lactic with relatively muted sourness. Low levels of citric acid give the berries a tart zing but nothing too puckering. It’s far more enjoyable than your average lemon juice-focused American sour ale. Though it isn’t marketed as a Berliner Weisse, that’s the closest beer style that comes to mind. Electric Shadow has all the best hallmarks of kettle sour ales: it’s creamy and thick-bodied with soft lactic acidity. Individual flavors of raspberry, blueberry, and hibiscus aren’t immediately evident. Instead, you have an inviting red berry mix with no one flavor dominating. It also hides the 8% dangerously well.
Perceived Specs for Pure Project Electric Shadow
Conclusion
Electric Shadow rewards you with the best that kettle-soured ales have to offer. Vibrant mixed berry flavors make this a fun beer that is sure to excite a wide variety of palates. For better or worse, there’s hardly any alcohol character to speak of despite its intense 8% strength. That makes it delicious but dangerously drinkable. I’d like to see something similar at the 5% level.
Similar Beers
Though it isn’t marketed as such, Electric Shadow matches up well with fruited Berliner Weisses. Some examples I’ve reviewed include: Other Half Mmm…Fruit Boysenberries, Stone Notorious P.O.G., and Firestone Walker Rosalie.
* * *
The Full Pint is a fully independent website dedicated to bringing you the highest quality reviews of today’s craft beer. Our team has no financial conflicts of interest with the beer industry in order to give you the least biased information out there in today’s craft beer world. Please use the comment section below for general comments about this beer and/or our review. If you would like to see a specific beer reviewed or have general comments on reviews, please email info(at)thefullpint.com. For more information on how we review beer read here.
