Beer Review: Samuel Smith's Organic Apricot

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.1 percent

Appearance: Samuel Smith's Organic Apricot glistened with a chroma of orange and golden hues. It was quite an attractive mix of the two. The body had a tinge of haze (which seemed to distort any presence of carbonation) to it and the head was a vivid white and very explosive. On an impressive note, the head rose very quick and had the notion to stop almost at the rim of the glass. It also gave way to some thick and web-like lacing.

Smell: Surprisingly, this was a little peppery and spicy. Very intriguing. The apricot aroma was slight, but complimented by a healthy yeast aroma. That provided that crust-esque combination I really enjoy in beer. The apricot aroma grew more impressive as the beer was able to warm-up.

Taste: The apricot was an amazing fruity sensation on the tongue. Especially as the beer got closer to warm temperature. The apricot was sweet, but more into the tart spectrum which I loved. The yeast provided that crusty backbone which reminded me of a cobbler or pie. I have to say that it was obvious that the fruit and the yeast were the focus of this beer. There was also a light hop bite on the back to punctuate things. A little touch of alcohol warmth peaked through as drink went on.

Overall Rating: 

An excellent fruit beer. Possibly one of the best apricot brews I've ever come across. It was very evident that the fruit and yeast were the two main characters in this play and I loved every second of it. Head was nice and foamy and provided some fluffiness and texture on every sip. It was actually kind of depressing once this bottle was gone. Luckily, I know where to get another one!

Beer Review: Rivertowne Hala Kahiki Pineapple

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.8 percent

Appearance: This brew poured a very foggy straw fold. By foggy, I mean almost opaque! It was crowned with a bright white head that was merely a thin layer of foam at the start and continued as such throughout the drink. Still, some decent web-like lacing was left on the inside of the glass as it was gradually consumed. I think the fogginess of this prevented me from seeing any carbonation. What I did see was some pineapple sediment floating around. I also noticed some of it in the bottom of the can.

Smell: Very, very sweet and malty. The pineapple aroma is pretty intense as well as sweet. A little bit grassy.

Taste: The pineapple and grassy flavors complimented each other nicely on the front. The pineapple stayed with me mid-way back and mixed with the sweet malt for an intense sugar rush. I caught just a tad of hop bitterness on the finish. This was more sweet than balanced.

Overall Rating: 

This was very hazy, but I don't think it'd look the same if there was anything transparent about this brew. I didn't enjoy the sediment, but I had to remind myself that it was pineapple in a beer made with pineapple. If you enjoy pineapple you might love this. Still, this sometimes gets a bit too sweet and malty for me. It even gets a little intense. It's a great beer, but I find that I have to be in the mood for the sweetness. Maybe a little more balanced? With all of that said, I love that this beer is a part of our local offering here in Pittsburgh.

Beer Review: Founders Rubaeus

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.7 percent

Appearance: This beer was a deep ruby red with purple and pinkish hues. It was almost the color of an oak-like red wine. The head was white, but still had interesting specks of an indigo color. It was somewhat fizzy, but the foam of the head seemed to fade off fairly fast. After about a minute I was able to stare straight into the body of the beer as the head completely disappeared!

Smell: Initially, this was sour and tart. Still, those two factors in the aroma seemed a tad faint. Behind the tartness, I was definitely able to decipher some fruity raspberries.

Taste: I kind of loved the taste of this one. No fruit beer has ever come close to actually tasting like pie filling, but this one took the cake...er...pie. The sweetness of the raspberries hit up front and as everything made its way to the midpoint, the tartness unfolded. I almost thought that I'd have to pick those nagging raspberry seeds from the nooks and crannies my teeth after each sip. That's how tasty and fruity this was.

Overall Rating: 

I'm glad it said "Pure Raspberry Ale" on the label of this one because, in essence, that's exactly what it was. The fruit was there big time, but there wasn't any hints of a wheat or yeast backbone present. I'm guessing that was in no way a mistake. That was the intention of brewing this. Still, the fruit really hit home. It actually smelled like a handful of raspberries was being thrust up into my nose. In no way did it feel artificial. Even with the awesome taste, I still want a bit more texture and attractive lacing to look at.

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: Indigo Imp Blonde Bombshell

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 6.2 percent

Appearance: This one came off as a deep, strong gold color with even stronger copper highlights elsewhere in the body that also bared a slight haze. Hold this one under some light to notice that it looks even more attractive. It featured an immense ivory-colored head that was both thick and explosive. I had to wait quite a while for it to die down a bit. Unfortunately this didn't translate into the lacing which stuck weakly to the inside of my glass. There were a lot of carbonation bubbles racing towards the upper portions of the beer.

Smell: This beer was oddly fruity and sweet. It wasn't turning me away. It was just unexpected on my part. There were also a few floral ho notes entering my nose as was a little bit of sweet malt. Intriguing smell.

Taste: It was tart, but still sweet on the front of my tongue. It was at this point that I also picked up a large character of yeast in this beer. It was a little too noticeable for my tastes. Very strong and pungent. The fruit being sweet mixed with the yeast flavor in this turned me off just a bit. The hop notes are once again very floral, but add some positive zest and zing to the flavor of this beer.

Overall Rating: 

This was definitely a different one. The head was explosive at first, but for whatever reason it didn't produce much lacing if any at all. The sweetness of the fruit content of the beer mixed with the yeast presence was interesting and tasty at first, but became like candy that's way too sweet. After a while it became just a little overbearing for me. Still, a creative and tasteful beer.

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: Harpoon Grateful Harvest

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.9 percent

Appearance: Grateful Harvest pours a very attractive shade of brown/amber. The color of the body also boasted some strong and visible ruby red highlights. The body was topped-off with a fluffy off-white head which had some abnormally large bubbles in it. That didn't seem to bug me much, though. The head was also able to leave some ample lacing on the way down. It was just slightly noticeable.

Smell: This beer had a strong backbone of caramel, toffee and sweet malt. That was complimented by an intense tartness from the cranberries that I expected to come across. I also was able to pick up a slight presence of bitter hops.

Taste: I somehow felt like I had just ate a can of cranberry sauce after I drank this. That can go either way with me sometimes. The two main things I got in the taste department from this brew was the intense tartness of the cranberries and the bitterness from the hops. I was able to deal with the bitterness. I was hoping to get a nice dosage of that sweet and malty backbone that I enjoy so much in fruit beers. I wanted some of the pie theory (that I invented) while consuming this beer and didn't get it to the fullest extent.

Overall Rating: 

This is typically a seasonal around Thanksgiving each year. I got this bottle in a mixer around Christmas and I'm just now deciding to review this. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer some crust with my pie. By that I'm making a reference to fruit pies. If it's a fruit beer, I want some crust with my fruit, i.e. I want that malty and bready backbone. I wished I had been able to get more of it with this one. Still, an interesting take on a fall beer.

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: Erie Derailed Black Cherry Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: Five percent

Appearance: Derailed  Black Cherry initially has the look of a wheat beer (although it's a cream ale). It's a fluorescent shade of orange and features a bit of fogginess throughout the body. The beer is crowned with what's a thick and fluffy head at first, but some weak retention caused it to fade away fairly fast. Aside from that, there was a tiny bit of ample lacing left on the inside of the glass.

Smell: The cherry in this beer was apparent almost immediately. It both sweet and tart. I feared that it would be dominated with an aroma that was too sweet, but I was fortunately proved wrong. It also doesn't smell artificial as plenty of cherry beers do.

Taste: Once again the cherry is the dominant sensation. It hits the front of the tongue with a sweet and tart punch. There's also a subdued maltiness to it that you won't catch until the aftertaste. Not much hop presence at all to compliment everything else.

Overall Rating: 

When you look at cream ales, it's a style that usually has its malt and hop characters toned down. So, the lack of it here is actually correct. The only reason I took some points away is the fact that I prefer a cream ale with either a strong malt or hop character. That's strictly a personal preference. I also wish I could have had a head on this beer that didn't run off so fast.

A Little Bit About Pie Theory

You might have read a few of my beer reviews and came across a reference to something called "Pie Theory." Don't be alarmed. It's not something that's included in the vernacular of the beer community. Like Rocky Balboa said on the news while punching meat in a cooler: "I think I invented it."


Pie Theory is something I came up with that best describes an experience you can have with a variety of beers out there. In my book, Pie Theory comes into play mainly with fruit and pumpkin beers.

I believe that in order to fully enjoy a fruit beer, that beer needs to resemble some form of a dessert. I guess you can say that the fruit resembles the filling inside of a well-crafted pie. As for the crust, this is where the yeast/bread presence comes into play.

If you understand the facets of beer history you know that beer is pretty much known as liquid bread. This is also a big part of the reason we enjoy pairing cheese with different types of beers. In ancient times, pairing these two items provided a multitude of nutrition. Beer combined water and bread. The cheese was the dairy. We still enjoy much of the same today.

Amazingly enough, beer can be used in similar, but different ways. Pie Theory is what I decided to get out of drinking fruit beers. When my family gathers, my favorite course is usually dessert. I always love a good slice of blueberry or cherry pie. There are a lot of fruit beers out there that have a lovely fruit presence and a good yeast/crust character as a good backbone. Think of it this way. Beer can be a bit less filling than pie and a bit healthier. The sugar is eaten by the yeast and converted to alcohol!

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.