Beer Brawl 12 – Fruit Beer
In early May, the poll on Simply Beer asked the question, “What is your opinion on fruit in beer?” The results from this poll was basically split down the middle. My personal opinion, was that fruit doesn’t belong in beer, but maybe I just haven’t had a good one. So, this weeks’ Beer Brawl was fruit beer. A fruit beer is a a basic beer, such as a wheat beer with fruit added.
Fruit Beer
With me on this podcast, as usual, was Mark Jackson. The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer. You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.
As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl:
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On Tap Tonight:
• Long Trail Blackberry Wheat
• Saranac Pomegranate Wheat
• Abita Purple Haze
• Southern Tier Cherry Saison
• Sly Fox Raspberry wheat
• Unibroue Ephemere
• Banana Bread Ale
• Dogfish Head Black & Blue
Slyfox Raspberry Wheat
Going in no particular order for these fruited beers, we started off with a very disappointing long Trail blackberry Wheat and quickly moved onto the Saranac Pomegranate Wheat, which at least presented us with a bit more complexity, color, and aroma. Next was the Abita, a comparable beer to the Saranac, but still nothing had yet wowed us. That quickly changed after we poured the Southern Tier Cherry Saison, great aroma and flavor. The next beer caught us off guard, Sly Fox Raspberry Wheat; it poured a purple color with a pink head, pretty cool and tasted like raspberry jam. The Unibroue Ephemere (pronounced YOU-ni-brew eff-eh-mehr) took us to a different style of beer, an apple beer, which was very similar to a dry white wine. After the Unibroue was a beer which name scared me, Banana Bread Ale. This beer is made with banana, but that was the only thing interesting about it. The final beer was the Dogfish Head Black & Blue; it was an amazing beer, by far the best of the lot, complex and well worth a purchase.
Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.
[poll id=”11″]
I’m surprised by your reaction to a few of the beers. Personally I like the Banana Bread beer and found it excellent when paired with dark chocolate gelato. The bitterness really compliments the banana. I think that Chris might need to be reminded that he is judging beer for adherence to a style and whether or not he likes a fruit is mostly irrelevant in the judging process. Keep up the podcasts! I love hearing people talk beer.
JT – appreciate the feed back. It just goes to show how wonderful beer is, many people can like different styles of beer. I’m convinced there is a beer for everyone. Some times it is hard to be completely objective, but we try to be honest and unbiased about the flavors we are experiencing. While we may not like certain beers, do usually do try to at least acknowledge the effort that goes into making beer. Keep listening and commenting!