With the Sip Advisor’s annual beer pong tournament being contested, some good beers were needed for my red solo cups. I chose to fill some of them up with this Vancouver Island Brewing release and had a party!

The Black Betty Blackberry Saison is brewed using freshly hand-picked blackberries from the island and combined with Northern Brewer hops for notes of spice and pine flavour. The 5.5% ABV beverage has a tart finish, making for a refreshing summer beer. According to the brewery: “We brewed this Blackberry Saison and the damn thing went wild!”

The summer seasonal is available in canned six-packs at BC Liquor Stores. I also recently came across the beer being part of Vancouver Island’s Pod Pack winter edition, as the feature brew, joined by three other VIB selections.

An homage to the classic rock song of the 1970s, Black Betty by Ram Jam, the tune’s lineage traces back to being an African-American work song. This has caused some controversy when various artists have recorded and released the track.

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