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Yule Cherry
Our Rating: 3.13 / 5
Yule Cherry from Funky Fluid is a cherry-driven sour ale built on clean acidity and vivid red-fruit sweetness, finished with a restrained hint of seasonal spice. The cherries shine with natural depth and balance, while a light body and subdued cinnamon leave the beer easy-drinking, polished, and the festivities are quietly hidden away.
Beer Name: Yule Cherry
Brewery: Funky Fluid
Beer Style: Sour Ale (Fruit Sour Beer)
Alcohol: 4.0%
Taste Notes: Cherry tartness, syrupy Amarena cherries, lactic, subtle warming spice, light body
Serving: Can
Serving Size: 500 ml (16.9 fl. oz.)
Yule Never Be This Funky
Yule Cherry is a 4.0% sour ale from Funky Fluid brewed with cherries and cinnamon, with the brewery recommending a serving range of 6–10 °C. That gives us three concrete elements to work with: acidity from souring, fruit contribution from cherries, and a spice addition that may show as aroma, flavour, or simple warmth. Nothing else is promised, so everything that follows is something we have to figure out for ourselves.
In our glasses, the beer pours a saturated ruby red, clean enough to catch light through the bowl of the glass. Foam barely forms and disappears quickly, which is consistent with fruit-heavy beers where proteins and hop compounds that stabilise the foam are diluted or disrupted. Carbonation is visibly fine, with steady bubbles slowly fizzing through the ruby-red liquid.
The aroma opens with clear cherry fruit. Its presentation is very fresh and natural, not candied or artificial, and it carries a soft sweetness alongside the gentle acidity. Cinnamon does not register as a defined spice on the nose; instead, there is a general warmth sitting underneath the fruit. The first sip pretty much confirms a low, controlled acidity. Tartness is present but never sharp or in your face. Cherry remains the dominant flavour, rounded, sweet, tart, while the spice contribution stays indistinct, emerging more as a warming sensation than a recognisable taste. Carbonation lifts the palate lightly, and the body feels somewhat thin but cohesive, setting a calm, drinkable baseline.
Is This Cinnamon, Hon?
Time in the glass confirms that the cherry component is the beer’s strongest asset. As temperature rises, sweetness becomes more apparent and the fruit expression gains weight, settling into a syrupy red-fruit register. Acidity remains steady and controlled, keeping the beer fresh across the full pour and preventing fatigue over a 500 ml can. That balance makes the beer easy to drink and technically clean.
Carbonation stays fine-grained and consistent, but it never tightens the structure. The body remains light and slightly soft, with little resistance that could have otherwise resultated in fatigue.
That softness suits the cherry-led profile, yet it also caps how much flavour the beer can reasonably carry. The finish is short, bitterness stays negligible, and the beer resolves quickly after each sip.
Cinnamon is where the beer’s ambition and structure fall out of alignment. The spice never becomes a distinct aroma or flavour; it appears only as a gentle warming sensation late in the finish. From a taste perspective, that leaves the beer under-expressive relative to its description, and also means the cherries, which are very sweet and syrupy, lack anything punchy to go up against.
From a structural perspective, the current body and carbonation would struggle to support a much stronger spice presence without adjustment. As it stands, the beer lacks enough cinnamon to shape the flavour, and lacks enough body to carry it if pushed further. Both constraints show up clearly in the glass. So while the cherries are presented extremely well, they are sweet, tart, and complex, but let down by a thin body, one-dimensional structure, and a cinnamon addition that is sorely lacking, especially for a yule-seasonal sour.
Within BJCP 2021, the most appropriate comparison point remains 29A – Fruit Beer. Fruit is dominant and clearly identifiable across aroma, palate, and finish. Cinnamon never reaches the level of sensory presence required for 29B – Fruit and Spice Beer, where spice must act as a co-defining element rather than a background modifier.
On Untappd, the beer sits at an average rating of 3.51. Our group average landed at 3.13. That difference reflects the same limitation experienced collectively: a well-made cherry sour with stable balance and easy pacing, held back by a flavour ambition that outpaces the beer’s current delivery.
Generally, we are big fans of Funky Fluid, and this beer partly shows why. They usually manage to pack a punchy flavour, and do it in a way that tastes real. The cherries are, as you probably have gathered by now, definitely the star of the show here, but the counterweight, the structure, the complexity let’s it down. For christmas 2026 we hope this returns in a bolder, more seasonal edition, where the body and mouthfeel is also corrected. And if anyone can do it, it’s Funky Fluid.
- Jesper: 2.75 / 5
- Viktor: 3.25 / 5
- Casper: 3.25 / 5
- Laurits: 3.25 / 5
Our Average Score: 3.13 / 5
