Brewery – Urban Artifact
Beer – The Gadget
Style – “Sour Berry Bomb”
ABV – 6.1%
IBU – 12
PH – 3.2
Designed by our taproom staff as an intricate experiment combining the explosive power of sour beer with the dangerous flavors of fresh berries. Duck and Cover!
This one got the city of Cincinnati pretty excited when it was first released late in the summer of 2016 at Urban Artifact. The Gadget hits squarely on the tart, and fruity levels that so many people love, myself included.
The brewery reached out to it’s employees to see what type of beer they wanted made, and their response of a “Sour Berry Bomb” was clearly a pretty good decision – so much so that when the brewery was looking to decide which beer would be their first to make its way into 12oz bottles, the decision was almost made for them. Come 2018, the Midwest Fruit Tart style had been born and this beer made its triumphant return to the market in 12oz cans (albeit with a few tweaks to the recipe)
If the name seems a little odd, have a closer look at the bottle artwork. The name and the design references back to the first atomic detonation, which was done in the New Mexican Desert as part of the Manhattan project. This first device was informally nicknamed “The Gadget” and had a detonation equal to around 22 kilotons of TNT. It was a bomb. This is a sour berry bomb. Get it?
2018 Variants
My Thoughts on Urban Artifact The Gadget
This is a really fun beer… I hope you understand that by reading so far. In the glass it pours a deep, royal purple color with a thick and hazy, even murky appearance. The small pink head that pops up when you pour your beer doesn’t stick around for long.
When you get over the top of the glass, you’ll find aromas that remind you of a fruit smoothie. It’s berries for days, with a cream like sensation that backs it up. If you blindfolded me, I would swear that it was a tall, fresh, fruit smoothie that you had placed under my nose.
The first thing that you get when you taste the beer is the sweet punch of berries. Raspberry and Blackberry fire off side by side only to be punctuated with a tart blast in your mouth. It’s all held together by a thick, creamy mouthfeel that brings back that smoothie sensation that I love. This beer is fantastic, and full of fruity, tart flavors that you’ll love.
