It’s getting hot. Really hot. Sweat-like-a-pig, dear-god-get-me-an-ice-bath hot.

You can beat the heat by hitting the pool or sitting in a meat locker — or you can grab a bottle of The Daily Iowan‘s beer of the week, Invercargill Brewery’s Boysenbeery.

And I promise, the brew is better than the groan-worthy name would make it sound.

Invercargill Brewery began in an old dairy shed in southern New Zealand (because why not?) and quickly became popular enough to warrant an actual building. The brewery’s calling card is its Pitch Black stout, but the seasonal Boysenbeery is the draught perfect for a baking summer day.

The wheat beer is infused with a generous helping of boysenberry, which gives the brew a distinctive fruity, malty scent.

Boysenbeery pours a deep, almost bloody crimson with an inch-thick, light pink head that soon gives way to a thin ring around the glass.

The beer is fruity without being overly sweet, with a pleasantly tart and dry finish. It’s almost like sparkling wine in a beer bottle, except wine won’t leave specks of boysenberry in the bottom of your glass.

Invercargill won several medals for its Boysenbeery brew, and while it’s different from anything you’ll drink all summer, it’s worth grabbing a bottle — if you can bring yourself to leave your air conditioning to get to the store, anyway.

Salud.

— by Seth Roberts