Red, Red Raspberry

Yea, I really enjoy fruity beers. Deal with it. With all of the fruit beer's I've attempted to seek out over the years, there's one local one that I haven't got my hands on yet. How could I have been so forgetful? Penn Brewery on the North Side plans to bottle this year's batch of Summer Berry Weiss some time this week, according to the brewery's Facebook page.

This almost makes me want to compile a small list of my favorite fruity brews that are brewed here in the Pittsburgh area. Lucky for you, before I do that I want to have tried this Berry Weiss first.

In my experience, I find beers with fruit used as a slight adjunct to be just about equal in taste to ales using fruit as one of the main ingredient. Sometimes fruit goes wonderfully with a well-crafted witbier or hefeweizen. Some have an awesome citrus zing. Others have something sweeter like a strawberry or apricot wheat. In some cases you have something that's pretty straight-forward like a blueberry ale (sometimes my favorite).

This Summery Berry Weiss seems to take on the persona of the witbier spectrum. Yeah, I know some out there are snickering since it says "Weiss" on the bottle.  I've had Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss (yea I know it's owned by the evil empire) and it tasted more like a wine cooler. These beers can sometimes go either way. Well, here's to getting my hands on a few pints or bottles of this stuff! I'm hoping to delve into quite a few fruit beers as spring begins to make its way here.

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.