Welcome to Into The Pint Glass fruit beer edition. Katie’s giving us the low-down on what a fruit beer is….
When you think beer, you think strawberries and peaches and oranges, right? Wait, no? Oh, I didn’t think so.
But you wanna know what, when you add fruit to beer, it tastes freaking awesome.
The original “fruit beer” is going to be the Lambic-based style, which we touched on a few weeks ago, when we talked about Sour Ales. Usually when fruit is added to the fermentation process it’s after the initial malt and hop drop, when yeast can start eating the sugars and keep the flavor of fruit present.
Brewers are now more apt to add in fruit extracts and essence instead of actual fruit to their brews. These need to be added in a stage after boiling, or else you’re going to get a weird haze to the beer. Also, these should not be added to anything hoppy. Generally, fruit and hops don’t mix well. Citrus is the exception. Have you had the Grapefruit Sculpin IPA? That’s pretty much the jam.
When judging fruit beers, you should still be judging based off of the original style of the beer and not just if the fruit flavor comes out strong. If the fruit has altered the essence of the original style, then the brewers got it wrong. Go home brewers, you’re drunk.
On the last Into The Pint Glass, I mentioned I considered saisons the champagne of beers. Well, the fruit lambic to me is the mimosa of beers. I felt like I had to include a lambic in my tasting of fruit beers. A lambic was my first ever fruit beer tasted in college. Not only are lambics a nice light beer to enjoy on it’s own, it’s also a good mixer. One of my favorites is a raspberry truffle (raspberry lambic + chocolate stout).
Smell: Distinctive raspberry aroma, no “beer” malt scent.
Taste: Very refreshing, dry, a hint of tartness, but not sour tasting. It’s almost like raspberry soda. Good thing it has a low ABV of 4%. The fruit flavor is the dominating flavor of this beer.
This was a good beer, clean and refreshing. Might be a bit too hoppy to be a truly great beach day beer, but one or two would be good on a hot day.
Smell: Light in aroma, sweet orange with a malty hint.
Taste: Not sweet at all in the taste. The orange is there in the end, but comes across as a clean, crisp taste. More hop than sweet or malty. Dry with a pronounced bitter finish that finishes with a twist of sweet orange.
What fruit beer was in your glass this week? Link-it up below!
Join us June 25th for Witbiers (Wits), it’s perfect for enjoying in the sun!
ooh that raspberry truffle sounds so good! i always thought lambics just tasted like fruit soda to me. 🙂
They do taste like fruit soda!! Well, most of them do. I had a St. Louis peach lambic yesterday and it was way too sweet.
Wow, those sound all kinds of amazing! I’m always iffy on fruit beers – the ones I love in the four ounce sampler tumbler have not been ones I can drink a whole pint of – so I’ll add the more muted ones to my must-try list!
I think if you like hoppy ales, than the blood orange would be right up your alley. I’m that way with sour ales, sometimes I can only do half a pint.
I’ll have to try that. I love blood orange, and I have a blood orange infused olive oil at home that I just can’t get enough of!
I love Timmermans as well and have never heard of mixing it which is on my list of things to try now!
Yes, you have to try mixing it!! I’m going to have to get strawberry next, to try that flavor out.
I am really into fruit beer & had a lot of awesome Belgian kirsch-bier mmm
Yes, Belgium is a great place to find some good fruit beers 🙂
Holy crap. That lambic sounds freaking amazing. I’m going to have to find that. Are you at NHC this weekend? My dad is in town helping out his friend (a vendor).
It was too easy to drink 🙂 No….I wanted P to go, but he decided against it. He actually said that he wished he had decided to go 🙁 That’s awesome!!
I love fruit beers! I haven’t tried Timmermans raspberry, though I did just see it at my local dive bar. I have had their strawberry, but it tastes like cough medicine to me so I bet the raspberry is better.
I can’t drink a lot of cherry flavored beers for that reason. The raspberry is very fruity though. I’ve never had the strawberry before.
Ooh, I totally want to try a lambic + stout now. I’ve never really gotten into mixing beers — I think I’ve had a black & tan once. But that sounds delicious.
It is really good, especially if you can get a very chocolate tasting stout. Like dessert in a glass.
fruit beer! fun. i have tried the first brand before, but not that exact flavour i don’t think.
They have a lot of different flavors, pumpkin even 🙂
I’m a fan of the fruit beer, of the citrus variety at least. The rasperry lambic is too sweet though. I do better with orange, lemon, grapefruit.
I agree the citrus is more refreshing. I like this raspberry one, I’ve had some that are much sweeter. A nice fruit beer is good in the summer.
I have a love hate relationship with fruit beers, but these two are so pretty! I like them until they’re so sweet it’s like drinking one of those “hard cider” drinks… haha
The Blood Orange Pale Ale was not sweet at all. The Timmerman’s was a bit sweet, but not overly…though a glass will do you.
Fruit beers are my favorites!!! I love raspberry lambics and have you tried Timmerman’s Strawberry? Mmmmmm Stiegl Radler grapefruit is so light and refreshing for summer too!
I have not had the Strawberry, sounds yummy though. The Stiegl is good, it reminds me of a shandy.