Smurf Berry Review: Beer Is Good Brewing Company’s Blue Raspberry Berliner Weisse

Blue raspberry has always been a candy flavor first and a beer flavor a distant second, so when Beer Is Good Brewing Company put it into a Berliner Weisse and called it Smurf Berry, I wanted to see if a tart German wheat base could actually carry that much nostalgia without turning into a novelty. This nano brewery out of downtown Norman, Oklahoma has built its whole identity on small-batch, rotating taps rather than a fixed lineup, and Smurf Berry is one of the fruited sours that keeps showing up on their board because drinkers keep asking for it back. Here is everything I found on the ABV, the ingredients, how it actually pours and tastes, and where it lands next to the other fruited sours and Berliner Weisses I have covered on this site.

At a Glance

Who is Beer Is Good Brewing Company?

Beer Is Good Brewing Company, which most regulars just call BIG Brew Co, sits at 216 E Main Street in historic downtown Norman, Oklahoma. Owners Shawn Stanford and Eric Martin started homebrewing together in their college house kitchens roughly two decades before opening the doors, and that hobby-first mentality still shapes how the brewery runs. It is a genuine nano brewery, built around a three-barrel system rather than anything close to production scale, and the taproom keeps 15 rotating taps that lean into sours, fruited beers, hop-loaded IPAs and heavy stouts rather than settling on two or three flagships.

That small-batch approach is exactly why a beer like Smurf Berry exists in the first place: instead of trying to build one sour that appeals to everyone, BIG Brew Co runs a rotating cast of fruited Berliner Weisses (Smurf Berry, Sour Cherry Morty, a passionfruit-forward brunch beer, and more) so the taproom always has something new pouring. The brewery also travels with a mobile beer trailer for festivals and events around the Norman and Oklahoma City area, which is part of how a nano brewery this size has built a reputation well past its own zip code.

What is Smurf Berry, and what is a Berliner Weisse anyway?

Smurf Berry is built on a Berliner Weisse base, a low-alcohol, wheat-forward German sour style that traditionally leans tart rather than bitter. If you have not run into the style before, I wrote a full breakdown here: What Is a Berliner Weisse? The short version: it is kettle-soured, brewed with a mix of malted wheat and barley, and finished with almost no hop character, which leaves the base beer pale, cloudy and mouth-puckering on its own. That blank, tart canvas is exactly why the style got adopted so widely as a base for American fruited sours, the same reason breweries add raspberry syrup or, in this case, a blue raspberry candy flavor.

Berliner Weisse is a close cousin of the German gose, though gose adds coriander and a pinch of salt where Berliner Weisse stays plain until the fruit goes in. If you want the side-by-side, I covered that comparison in What Is a Gose? Smurf Berry sits firmly on the Berliner Weisse side of that split: no salt, no coriander, just a tart wheat base carrying a huge blue raspberry candy flavor on top.

Smurf Berry ABV, IBU and ingredients

At 4% ABV, Smurf Berry sits right where most Berliner Weisse-style sours land: light enough to drink two or three in a session without it turning into a project. BIG Brew Co has not published an IBU figure for this one (their can labels do not carry it, and I could not find one from a lab source either), which is normal for the style. Traditional Berliner Weisse is typically brewed in the 3 to 8 IBU range since the entire point of the beer is to stay hop-neutral and let the lactic tartness and fruit carry the flavor, so I would expect Smurf Berry to sit somewhere in that same low neighborhood rather than anywhere close to a hoppy beer.

The label calls out “blue raspberry” specifically, which is a flavoring choice worth noting: this is not a real-raspberry-puree sour like some of the fruited beers I have reviewed, it is built to taste like the candy and slushie flavor most of us grew up on, closer to a blue raspberry snow cone than to an actual raspberry. That is a deliberate call, not a shortcut, and it is a big part of why the beer reads as fun rather than serious.

Tasting notes: how Smurf Berry actually pours and drinks

The first thing that stands out with Smurf Berry is the color. Berliner Weisse is normally a hazy straw gold, but the blue raspberry flavoring pushes this one into a bright, almost neon green in the glass, more like a candy slushie than a typical beer. Head is thin and white, which is standard for the style since a Berliner Weisse this tart and this light rarely holds a big rocky head for long.

On the nose it is straight candy: blue raspberry syrup, a little bit of cotton candy sweetness, and only a faint hint of the wheat base underneath. The taste follows the nose closely. Up front there is a wave of that same blue raspberry candy flavor, then the Berliner Weisse tartness kicks in on the middle and back of the palate, lactic and puckering rather than hop-bitter. The finish is dry and sharp, which keeps the whole thing from tasting like soda even with how much fruit flavor is up front. Carbonation is lively, which helps push the tartness forward and keeps a 4% beer feeling lighter than its ABV suggests.

Food pairing: what to eat with Smurf Berry

Tart, fruited sours like this one work best against food that can stand up to acidity rather than compete with sweetness. A few pairings that work with Smurf Berry specifically:

• Fried chicken or fish: the tartness cuts grease the same way a squeeze of lemon would.
• Goat cheese or a soft, tangy cheese board: acid-on-acid sounds odd on paper but the candy sweetness balances a sharper cheese well.
• Spicy Thai or Szechuan dishes: the low ABV and bright carbonation reset the palate between bites the way a shandy would.
• Simple vanilla or lemon desserts: the blue raspberry flavor plays the same role a raspberry coulis would on a dessert plate.

How Smurf Berry compares to other fruited sours I have reviewed

Smurf Berry is not the only blue raspberry-flavored sour I have covered. Drippin' from Drastic Measures Brewing uses the same blue raspberry flavor profile on a fruited sour base, and it is a useful side-by-side if you want to see how two different breweries handle the same candy flavor. If raspberry without the “blue” candy twist is more your speed, Crimson Briar from Counter Weight Brewing is a more traditional raspberry sour worth comparing against. And if you want to see the style stretched in a completely different flavor direction, Limelight from Tactical Brewing Co. takes the same tart wheat base toward lime, coconut and brown sugar instead of berry candy.

For a wider view of the category, I keep an updated roundup at Sour Beer Brands: 8 Real Ones Worth Trying, and a fruit-first list at Fruity Beer: 10 Worth Actually Tracking Down if Smurf Berry has you chasing more of this style.

Where to find Smurf Berry, and 5 alternatives if you cannot get to Norman

Smurf Berry is a taproom and limited-can release out of a three-barrel nano brewery, so it has never been picked up for wide distribution and it is not currently listed for delivery on Saucey. If you are anywhere near Norman, Oklahoma, the taproom itself is the only real way to get it. If you are not, here are five fruited sours and tart wheat beers in the same general lane that you can actually order through Saucey right now:

Final verdict on Smurf Berry

Smurf Berry does exactly what it sets out to do: it takes a tart, low-ABV Berliner Weisse base and turns it into a genuinely fun blue raspberry sour without losing the tartness that makes the style worth drinking in the first place. It is not trying to be a serious, funky sour, and it should not be judged as one. At 3.79 out of 5 from drinkers, it sits right where I would put it: a strong taproom pour that rewards a visit to Norman rather than a beer worth chasing down online.

FAQs

What does Smurf Berry taste like?

Smurf Berry tastes like blue raspberry candy layered over a tart, lightly sour Berliner Weisse base. Expect an upfront wave of blue raspberry sweetness, a puckering lactic tartness through the middle, and a dry, sharp finish.

What is the ABV of Smurf Berry?

Smurf Berry is 4% ABV, in line with the low-alcohol tradition of the Berliner Weisse style it is built on.

What is the IBU of Smurf Berry?

Beer Is Good Brewing Company has not published an IBU figure for Smurf Berry. Traditional Berliner Weisse beers are typically brewed in the 3 to 8 IBU range since the style is built to be hop-neutral, so Smurf Berry likely falls in that same low range, though this is an estimate rather than a confirmed number.

Where can I buy Smurf Berry?

Smurf Berry is a taproom and limited-can release from Beer Is Good Brewing Company in Norman, Oklahoma. It is not currently distributed outside the brewery and is not available through Saucey. See the alternatives above for similar tart, fruited beers you can order for delivery.

Is Smurf Berry a real Berliner Weisse or a flavored malt beverage?

It is a true Berliner Weisse: a kettle-soured German-style wheat beer brewed with malted wheat and barley, then flavored with blue raspberry rather than built on a malt-beverage base.

What is Beer Is Good Brewing Company known for?

Beer Is Good Brewing Company, also called BIG Brew Co, is a nano brewery in downtown Norman, Oklahoma known for a constantly rotating tap list across sours, fruited beers, IPAs and stouts rather than a fixed set of flagship beers.