12 oz single, courtesy of Kevin – thanks mate.
A clouded, “orangey”, copper colored pour with some scant white head but a lack of much presence or lace.
A somewhat attractive blueberry based fruit aroma comes off the beer, even when quite cold. This nose intensifies as the beer warms as the volatiles escape.
Tastes are unfortunately less attractive than the nose would suggest, but in a surprising way. Sometimes, beers like this a criticized for their “imitation” fruit flavors but that’s not the problem here. In fact I would describe the blueberries are quite “natural tasting”, however the beer is oddly sweet with a combination of sugar notes and high, solvent alcohol taste that makes it rather difficult to drink. It’s a bit sickly sweet in its taste, and this is coming from someone that usually loves sweet beers. The combination does not meld very well together for me, and last third of the bottle is not consumed.
The beer ends up being too heavy, and I am looking for a brew with MUCH cleaner lines if I am picking up a fruit based beer. Here is seems like there is an unlikely combination of high sugar levels with excess alcohol! Seems odd, I know but whatever it is, and however it was achieved, it does not drink easily.
I am NOT against fruit beer in general, it just seems as though this one is not coming together very well.