Skip to main content

Citrus, meet sour: 10 Barrel Brewery’s Swill radler

citrus meet sour 10 barrel brewerys swill radler beer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In the world of alcohol, the term “swill” isn’t exactly a good thing. It often refers to a drink of inferior quality, the kind most would perceive as unpalatable to the tongue and tend to avoid at all costs. Fortunately for Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewery, its seasonal Swill ironically brings a whole new meaning to the term, delivering a sweet American radler infused with natural citrus and tangy undertones.

1598770_267540343416801_1594097421_nA former one-off beer and the brainchild of 10 Barrel brewmaster Tonya Cornett, the Swill showcases more within its light-body exterior than meets the eye. On the outside, the beer resembles your standard lager or pilsner, with golden hues that perforate the top and bottom of 22-ounce bottles and six-packs scattered about the West Coast. Inside however, the unassuming Swill provides a near perfect blend of a traditional American sour and layers upon layers of distinct citrus. The brewery’s award-winning German Sparkle Party — a sour wheat beer laced with fruity flavors such as apricot, raspberry, and cucumber — comprises the beer’s Berliner-Weisse base, while subtle hints of grapefruit and sparkling soda add to the pungent mix. It doesn’t contain as much soda as a traditional radler, a German-based concoction that utilizes a 50-50 blend of beer and sparkling lemon soda similar to a shandy, but it’s still enough to give the beer a refreshing twist fit for the summer months to come.

Like the label says, you’ll either love or hate the Swill. Given 10 Barrel’s recent roll of craft beers, though, we have a feeling it’s not going to be the latter. I guess it’s a good think the Swill is a modest 4.5 percent, whether bottled or fresh from the tap.

Check out the seasonal Swill online for more information or to peruse all of 10 Barrel Brewery’s beers, including the notorious Apocalypse IPA and the surprisingly-light Sinister Black ale.

Brandon Widder
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brandon Widder is a journalist and a staff writer for the Manual and its brother site, Digital Trends, where he covers tech…
Forget wine — Beer and cheese is an unbeatable combination
Put the corkscrew away and crack open a cold one
Beer and cheese

When one hears the term cheese pairings, wine is the beverage that most often comes to mind, we'd wager. Because, of course, it is. The pairing of wine and cheese is as classic a coupling as peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, or chocolate and strawberries. They're meant to be together. But that certainly doesn't mean that wine is the only adult beverage that can dance an alluring tango alongside everyone's favorite dairy product. Beer, as humble as its reputation can be, is also a beautiful balance to cheese's immense offering of flavors. While some may think of beer as not being as multi-dimensional and varied in its palate-pleasing capabilities as wine, this is not the case - especially now that we live in a world with so many exquisite craft beers, stouts, and lagers.
Of course, another classic accompaniment to cheese is bread or crackers. Why might that be, one might ask. Is it because we're simply in need of a starchy vessel to usher the cheese into our mouths? The answer is actually a bit deeper than that. Starches like bread and crackers are made from the same yeasty ingredients as beer, so their pairing makes perfect culinary sense.
This isn't to say, though, that one can simply pick up a hunk of cheddar and crack open a Budweiser and expect culinary artistry. The science is a bit more nuanced than that, so we're here to help you find the best pairings for your favorite beers and cheeses.

How to pair beer and cheese

Read more
Mijenta has a new cristalino tequila — here’s why bourbon fans will love it
Mijenta has a cristalino tequila perfect for bourbon drinkers
Mijenta Cristalino

If you’re new to tequila, you might not know all the terms. Even if you’re just a beginner, you probably know all about blanco, reposado, añejo, and maybe even joven. But chances are, you’re not familiar with Cristalino tequila. This reasonably contemporary style is simply añejo tequila that’s been charcoal filtered to remove its natural caramel color and various impurities.

The style is more than just a little popular. It’s actually the fastest growing style of tequila according to Nielsen data. The newest brand to get in on the Cristalino trend is Mijenta.

Read more
You may not dislike IPAs as much as you think — you’ve just tried the wrong type
There's much more to the IPA than bitter hop bombs
Beer

The IPA has been described as the cilantro of the beer world. It’s assumed by some novice drinkers that you either love it or hate it. On one hand, it’s one of the most popular beer styles in the American craft world. It’s loved by many drinkers for its liberal use of hops and fresh, crushable flavor profile.

But haters of the style dislike it because they have an assumption that all IPA beers are aggressively hopped and uncomfortably bitter. While there are IPAs that fit that criterion (and fans of that style can’t get enough of them), there are also a handful of other types of IPAs to fit any palate.
The IPA stigma

Read more