Beer Review: Saranac Blueberry Blonde

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: Five percent

Appearance: This brew poured a very hazy golden yellow. The chroma was very reminiscent of golden honey. The half-inch, pure white head peaked and then faded away into oblivion leaving a thin layer of fizzy bubbles to crown the beer. Along with the fast disappearance of the head, not much lacing was left.

Smell: There was plenty of grassy and sweet scents to go around. I also picked out some tart blueberries. Nice and tart. Just the way I like the fruit in my beer. Maybe that's why I really liked the Warheads candy when I was a kid?

Taste: As I wanted it to be, the blueberry flavor in this was quite tart and sour all of the way across the tongue. As the beer made its way towards the back there was a slight cracker and hop bite. The hop bitterness interestingly increased a little when the beer was able to warm. I like my fruit beers to have a crusty backbone to compliment the tartness. I got a bit of it in this brew's flavor, but not enough to vault this over some of the others out there.

Overall Rating: 

I love my blueberry ales and this one gets the job done. This tasted nice and tart. Still, I would have liked to get some more pie and pastry taste going when I have one of these. That's what holds this back. The head is also a bit weak and it looked as if this contributed to the lack of texture of the brew.

Beer Review: Fat Heads Bumble Berry

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.3 percent

Appearance: This Fatheads concoction pours an awesome shade of gold. It highly resembles clover honey and had just a touch of visible haze. The body featured a prominent crown of shiny white head. The bubbles appeared tight-knit and compact. It was similar to wet snow. It was fluffy yet firm and left ample lacing inside of my glass.

Smell: The aroma of this brew was very bready and crackery. I also noticed some sweet honey behind it. There was both some tartness and sweetness from the blueberries albeit a bit nonchalant. I didn't pick up much hop character either, but I don't usually expect to get much in fruit beers.

Taste: The sweetness hit me up front as it usually does. That was mostly with the honey. The blueberry was sweet on the front and translated into slight tartness as it made its way towards the finish. On the finish, everything was very crisp. The tart from the blueberry combined nicely with the crackery/crusty taste on the finish. That enabled just a tad of zing at the end.

Overall Rating: 

This beer was awesome. I also recently had a glass of it on draft while at Fat Heads on the South Side. Surprisingly, the bartenders put a small handful of actual blueberries in it. It was fantastic! I'd love to one day have a case of this beer, but the ones I've found are in the $40 range. Still, I'm leaning towards grabbing one for myself in the near future.

Beer Review: Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.6 percent

Appearance: Wild Blueberry Ale pours a light chroma of copper with a few golden highlights. This brew was more in the middle on a scale of darker stained and blond blueberry ales. Overall, a pretty color. There's a decent white head that has amazing retention. It'll stay atop the brew for the entire drink.

Smell: The blueberries are prevalent in this brew's aroma. Not only do you get some of the tartness, you get the fruit's sweetness as well. There's also a bit of grain and breadiness that gives you some pie/dessert effect (I need to officially name this theory soon). Through the appearance and smell, I'm envisioning biting into a thick and full blueberry pie. With the extra sweetness I picked up in the aroma, I mentally sprinkled some sugar atop the crust that caramelized during baking!

Taste: The taste was a home run. The blueberries are at the forefront, as they should be. It's a perfect combination of sweetness and tartness. The breadiness jumps in as a secondary flavor and acts as a good backbone to the fruit you get on the front. A very slight hop finish puts the explanation point on this beer.

Overall Rating: 

This is an all-timer for me. It's in my top-10 as a matter of fact. A fabulous fruit beer. Sweet and tart blueberries plus a nice malty backbone. If you have a special event such as a wedding in a summer, I highly recommend this. This is the last of the blueberry ales I was lucky enough to try this summer. It's fitting that I cram them all in now as this is the last day of August.

Beer Review: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.2 Percent

Appearance: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale pours a lighter shade of copper. It's almost an amber, but the deep purple highlights throughout the brew remind you that this is a fruit beer. There's a bluish-white head that is pretty foamy and has fair retention. Expect a decent amount of lacing on the inside of your glass.

Smell: This beer smells very, very sweet upon initial waft. Tart blueberries and a touch of maltiness flow in just behind that.

Taste: This is where it went wrong for me. The tart blueberry taste I expected seemed weakened. The maltiness I experienced in the aroma seriously lacked. It also came off as a touch too boozy for me. The ABV isn't the biggest number in the world, but I didn't expect to get much of it in this department.

Overall Rating: 

This is a really appetizing brew when you look and smell it. When I drink a blueberry ale, I like a brew that's stained by the fruit, as most blueberry ales are. This one has that and the tart aroma. Unfortunately the blueberry wasn't active enough in the taste. I was expecting big things from this beer as I've heard raving reviews about it.

Monday Rant: Homebrew Extracts

One of Beer Snob Sr.'s earlier homebrews.

I was visiting the infamous Beer Snob Sr. a few nights back to try one of his homebrews. This time it was the blueberry ale he had been working on.

Other homebrews I had the chance to try that were his included something from a kit called Cowboy Lager, which was some type of lager with a tart apple flavor, and a Honey Maibock.

His most recent creation was a blueberry ale which had a surprisingly dark tone to it. It was surprising to me since most blueberry ales I've come across in the past have had pure blonde bodies. It was his opinion that the blueberry taste wasn't as powerful as he expected.

Let it be known that he uses the Mr. Beer homebrewing set-up and that each of the kits he uses include some type of extract. (Remember that Beer Snob Sr. is not my father. In fact, he is a close friend that shares my interests in beer and great food. He's older than me and friends began to call us Beer Snob's Sr. and Jr.)

The kits that my father and I have used don't have extracts. We strive to use as many natural ingredients as possible. If any type of abstract is involved, we attempt to replace said extract with the original, and natural ingredient.

When Beer Snob Sr. complained about the lack of blueberry flavor, I pondered whether or not the flavor could have been more explosive if he had chosen to replace the extract with natural blueberries.

From experience, I know that the brewing experience gets that much harder when you decide to go the natural ingredient route. You also have to sometimes time the addition perfectly. It might benefit your beer's flavor if you wait to add the fruit during the secondary fermentation as opposed to the primary.

It does get more complex. Years ago I helped to make a cherry wheat beer with homegrown cherries only to have the top of the fermenter blow off in our coat closet. It's a tougher process when you replace the extracts, but I feel that the flavor ends up being more noticeable in the end.

Beer Review: Shipyard Smashed Blueberry

Serving Type: Draft


ABV: Nine percent


Appearance: I was really shocked when I saw this beer for the first time. When you see a beer with blueberry anywhere in its name, you don't necessarily expect to see this. Smashed Blueberry is almost a dark, black beer. I also noticed quite a few purple, yet blue tones floating around in the body. It features a flat, khaki head without much life to it. It's almost as if the dark color of the beer forbids the head to be adventurous.


Smell: The smell of this beer wasn't exactly sweet, but a slight tartness of blueberries is discernible. I also got a strong hint of roasted malts as well as some dark chocolate.


Taste: The malts and the dark chocolate are the two dominant flavors. The blueberry isn't as strong as I had hoped, but makes for a great finish on the back. In essence, the stronger flavors give way to the fruitiness at the end of a sip. The alcohol content is also noticeable on the tongue.


Overall Rating: 

This was a really interesting take on blueberry beers for me. I've never had one which featured darker and maltier flavors in front of the blueberry tartness. This beer was really enjoyable.

Beer Review: Blue Point Blueberry Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.6 percent

Appearance: Blueberry Ale is a very light beer and it shows that very well. It has a pretty gold color to it, but you can still see right through it. You can also spot any trace of carbonation in this beer. The head is fairly white and foamy. Don't get too excited as it won't be there for long.

Smell: This beer's scent makes me think of the blueberry muffins my girlfriend makes me. There's that nice, sweet blueberry scent along with the grains and malts that help distinguish it.

Taste: I got a nice helping of blueberry on the front and plenty of sweetness on the back. There's a little more carbonation in this brew than i like, but doesn't mess with the flavor at all. Overall, it's very crisp and refreshing.

Overall Rating:   

I promised yesterday that I'd review it since I'm on a blueberry kick. I really enjoyed this beer. Can't wait to have one on a hot day after work in the summer. So sweet. So crisp. Great beer, but certainly not on the level of that blueberry blonde ale I sampled a few years ago.


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A Secret Love Affair: Blueberry Ales

When it comes to my favorite beer styles, I've always been one to prefer a good Vienna Lager or a nice Weissbier. Especially when it comes to pairing a beer with your supper.  I've never been steered wrong when it comes to these two styles at any point in the year.

With that said, I have also been known to have a soft spot for fruit beers. I guess you can classify it as a slight form of beer immaturity since I'm only in my third year of being old enough to consume alcohol legally.

I think my affection for fruit beers stems from my time spent at North Country Brewing Co. on Main Street in Slippery Rock. North Country's "Fruit Bowl" on the tap list would change every few weeks or so. There was a decent selection of fruit beers such as a blueberry, a strawberry, a cherry and even an apricot. When I came in for a drink I was always intrigued to try the new fruit beers.

Thus began my love affair with the fruit style. I think that my enjoyment of these beers are at fault for my more recent obsession with Weissbiers due to the citrus undertones.

Of any type of fruit beer, I consistently return to the blueberry ales. The first one I had was the infamous Blue-Eyed Blueberry Blonde while on an NCAA Tournament trip two years ago at Pearl Street Grill and Brewery in Buffalo. I distinctly remember that beer's scent being almost like a stack of blueberry waffles or a pie. I was this close to having  a hallucination of me walking up to a window of a farmhouse in the old cartoons and seeing a pie there with the scent vapors coming from it. It was amazing. 

The taste was perfect. I haven't been able to taste any fruit beer that replicates the scent and flavor I had that night and I most likely won't be able to taste this amazing beer again as i can't find it listed on the brewery's website anymore.

I eventually found a case of Blue Point Blueberry Ale to hold me over (which I will review tomorrow for you in order to keep the theme going. Unfortunately it's nowhere close to the Blonde I consumed two years prior. The only thing similar in the two beers is the clear, blonde color.

As I continue my search to match that Blue-Eyed Blonde that tempted me so that memorable night I've come up with a small list of blueberry-related brews that I have my hungry/thirsty eyes set on.

Atlantic Brewing Company's Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale (5.2 percent ABV)

When you do some research on other websites/blogs for blueberry ales, Bar Harbor's is the one you will see mentioned the most. According to Atlantic's website, this beer doesn't take the sweet approach that most of the beers do, but that slightly sour taste on the back of the tongue that you get from real blueberries should be more present.

From what I found elsewhere this beer is a shade of copper, compared to the two blonde ales I drank previously. If I can get my hands on this beer I might be in for a completely different, yet still exhilarating experience.

Boulder Brewing Company's Kinda Blueberry Wheat (5.2 percent ABV)

Kinda Blueberry looks to be a completely different take on blueberry ales than anything mentioned previously in this post. This beer is an American wheat, but with some natural blueberry flavor behind it. From what I can deduct from Boulder's website, this is as close as it gets to a blueberry hefeweizen. Mind-numbing, isn't it?

Other reviews I've come across for this beer state that it's a fairly tart-tasting drink with some bread and wheat taste to balance it out, which is essential to bringing out that pie/pancake/waffle taste. That's exactly what I'm looking for


Buffalo Bill's Blueberry Oatmeal Stout (7.5 percent ABV)

This is the one beer in this small list that sticks out like a sore thumb, as does it's ABV. I've never heard of an Oatmeal Stout with blueberry in it. Most of the reviews I can find on it describe the taste as being of the sweet blueberry type, with a hint of chocolate forcing it's way onto your tongue. It looks as if this beer's flavor is a bit confused on what it wants to be, but I'm still intrigued to try it.

I came across some of Buffalo Bill's Original Pumpkin Ale this fall and wasn't exactly blown away. That doesn't help my expectations at all. I know for a fact that bottles of this beer are in the cooler at Blue Dust in Homestead as I write this.

I'm always on the lookout for new fruit beers. hopefully I can get my hands on these three sometime in the next year or so. If you know of any others, please let me know about it!

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