A NIGHT WITH THE HOPS» Fruit Beer Archives – A Night With The Hops

Eel River Brewing Co. – Açai Berry Wheat

Lucas — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:00:32 +0000

My memory tells me that this one made it into the house via choice of The Wife, which makes sense since I do not often purchase fruit beers on my own to take home for whatever reason. Short of a few pumpkin brews in the next few months I do not foresee much in the way of fruit or vegetable beers coming home until well after the first of the year. I am definitely ready for some of the heavier fall and winter seasonals that will be coming soon.

This turned out to be pretty refreshing and a very easy drinking beer, though it probably should be at 4% ABV. The Wife enjoyed it quite a lot, as my notes indicate that she gave it an A.

Now for this Friday . . .

Brewery: Eel River Brewing Co. (Scotia, CA)

Name: Açai Berry Wheat

Style: Fruit Beer (based on American Wheat?)

ABV: 4.00%

Tasting Notes: Stored in the fridge and served in a pint glass. $4.49 for a 22 ounce bottle. USDA Organic and Certified Organic by CCOF.

Aroma: Low, but prominent berry aroma with a bit of grainy sweetness.

Appearance: Pale golden color (honey-like). One finger, frothy, white head with decent retention leaving no trail. Very clear with tons of small rising bubbles visible.

Flavor: Low grainy flavor with a faint fruit/berry character underneath and some very slight sharpness at the finish. Not strong overall flavor profile, but nothing bad either.

Mouthfeel: Light body with a moderate to high level of carbonation that gives a little bite. Slightly creamy and pretty crisp.

Overall Impressions: Not great, but not bad . . . especially with my mixed results/feelings on organic beers in the past. Would drink well ice cold sitting under the sun somewhere. Does this qualify as getting some antioxidants?!

Grade: B-(ish)

Eel River Brewing Co. - Acai Berry Wheat

A close up.

Blueprint Brewing – Wunder Weizen

Lucas — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:00:57 +0000

It may be time to take an extended break from adding fruit to my homebrews. The fact that I tend not to like fruit beers much at all makes me wonder why I have dabbled in it even as much as I have. I guess it is because the ingredients are so easy to get my hands on, especially in this case where the POM was a freebie. I think that I should practice getting the base styles perfected before continuing to add fruit to the mix. That is unless pumpkin is somehow considered a fruit because I have plans to utilize that again pretty soon.

Now then . . .

Brewery: Blueprint Brewing (Winter Park, FL)

Name: Wunder Weizen

Style: Fruit Beer (based on Hefeweizen)

ABV: 4.34% (+/-)

Tasting Notes: Stored in the fridge and served in a weizen glass. Name is a reference to the POM Wonderful that was added to secondary fermentation.

Aroma: Bready/yeasty aroma with a fruity sharpness behind that. Has an apple-like fermented fruit quality.

Appearance: Dark honey color (orange/brown mix). Two finger, frothy, cream color head that holds really well and leaves a slightly laced trail. Hazy (cannot see through) though rising bubbles visible when held to light.

Flavor: Fruity sharpness up front with a slight wheat character underneath and a light yeast flavor toward the finish. Finishes a bit dry with some lingering (almost puckering).

Mouthfeel: Light body with a moderate level of carbonation. Slightly creamy with a bit of astringency at the finish.

Overall Impressions: Interesting and not really what I expected. Emily compared (somewhat) to a cider and I tend to agree. If you close your eyes, you could be convinced that it is a fruit (apple) cider that has not fermented all the way yet. First try at using fruit juice and I think there is much fine tuning to do. I did not love it at first, but it has grown on me lately as it has been in bottles longer.

Grade: C(ish) . . . Probably lower if really judged per Hefeweizen style.

Blueprint Brewing - Wunder Weizen

And a bit closer

Blue Dawg Brewing – Wild Blue

Lucas — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:00:39 +0000

For a bit of a break today before I continue on with a few more brews from Ithaca in the coming days, I bring you an ABInBev beer. Now the reason is that I saw it was brewed in Baldwinsville, NY and grabbed it while at the grocery store. After arriving home with it I called Syracuse Rob to ask if there was another brewery (other than Bud) in Baldwinsville that I was unaware of. It did not take very long for us to figure out who brews this one despite it being labeled as a Blue Dawg Brewing product. For a brief moment I thought there was a new brewery near my old stomping grounds to visit next time there, but it was only false hope.

Regardless I gave the beer a fair shot because to me good beer is good beer no matter who brews it. Surely there has to be an exception to that rule, but you get the idea. With that, after reading my review check out this article/press release from a few years ago that just shows that there are vastly different opinions out there.

Now continuing on . . .

Brewery: Blue Dawg Brewing (Baldwinsville, NY)

Name: Wild Blue

Style: Fruit Beer (Blueberry Lager)

ABV: 8.0%

Tasting Notes: Stored in the fridge and served in a pint glass. $7.49 for a six pack.

Aroma: Prominent fruit/berry aroma that is very sweet and almost grapey.

Appearance: Dark purple(ish) color (blueberry). Two finger, light pink/purple head that is thick with moderate retention and a slight trail. Clear with a few visible rising bubbles.

Flavor: Fermented berry flavor with no hop flavors noticed. Light malt flavors underneath and some slight harshness at finish.

Mouthfeel: Light body with high carbonation. Pretty smooth drinking and almost creamy with a hint of warmth.

Overall Impressions: Like drinking malt liquor with a lot of berry syrup added. There are no real flavors/characteristics beyond the artificial tasting berry. If this was a soda it would have a higher grade, but does not work for me as a beer. Absolutely no need to buy again.

Grade: D to D+ range

Blue Dawg Brewing - Wild Blue

A bit closer

I believe it was a twist off.

Blueprint Brewing – Pop This

Lucas — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:30:02 +0000

Continuing on with this home brewing heavy week of posts, I have one of the two remaining brews for which reviews have yet to be shared. Of course I have a few more beers in the works, but they are not near ready for evaluation just yet. Soon enough though.

As usual, the name for the beer was selected (very quickly) by the Blueprint Brewing marketing department, which consists only of The Wife and myself.

For the first one this week I will start with a beer that The Wife liked somewhat, but only enough to give it a grade of C+.

Brewery: Blueprint Brewing (Winter Park, FL)

Name: Pop This

Style: Dunkelweizen / Fruit Beer

ABV: 4.56% (+/-)

Tasting Notes: Stored in the fridge and served in a pint glass.

Aroma: Light grainy/wheaty aroma with some sweet fruitiness (dark and not too strong). Also some crispness to the overall aroma.

Appearance: Dark brown with deep red tones (more so when held to light). Slight off-white head (with some reddish tones) that dissipates quickly without a trail. Clear with maybe a slight haze (when held to light) and some rising bubbles visible. The sediment was not roused during pour.

Flavor: Even, slightly roasted malty flavor as a base with an almost red wine-like fruit profile in back. A bit of minerally quality towards the finish which is lightly dry and does not linger long. Not a huge flavor profile overall.

Mouthfeel: Medium to light body with quite a bit of carbonation. Pretty crisp (with some bit from the carbonation) and some faint creaminess.

Overall Impressions: Best beer that I have brewed with fruit to date though probably not a great example of the Dunkelweizen style. Quite easy drinking. A good start, but there are improvements to be made going forward (would like to get some sour cherries in there).

Grade: B-

Blueprint Brewing - Pop This

Bottling Difficulties

Lucas — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:30:44 +0000

As an appropriate topic sandwiched between the Big Brew a few days ago and National Homebrew Day coming up this Friday, I will continue with brewing posts (after the one posted on Saturday) with one today and more to come later this week. I will even throw in a few of my own beer reviews this week for good measure. Of course it would have been a more proper homage to the Big Brew to actually participate, but I did not plan well enough to have my equipment not already occupied by other batches. There is always next year!

Now on to bottling the Pomegranate Hefeweizen . . .

Interesting color

There are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process, but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling. Of course this time there was no (blueberry) favoring added since the POM had already been incorporated.

As usual I boiled ¾ cup of corn sugar in 2 cups of water, cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over. This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.

Waiting for water to boil is exciting.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.013, giving the beer approximately 4.34% ABV. That number did come up a bit since the POM was added going into secondary fermentation.

A bit of quality control.

After tasting the sample that was pulled off for the hydrometer, the aroma was a bit fruity and sweet with some yeasty notes. It was very smooth with some light tartness and I think it may be somewhat cider-like when carbonated. I will be sampling again in the very near future (quality control you know).

It was more work than usual.

As my closing note to this entry I will complain about my new automatic bottling apparatus. My concerns were spot on and calling it a worthless piece of garbage may be too kind. I became so frustrated with how it was working that I went back to my bottling wand, knowing that it has issues as well. The thing that the new automatic bottle filler did best was leak beer all over the floor on the way to the bottles. The way that the tubing is attached to it does not function well at all and I will need to do some work to it before ever giving it another chance. I should have purchased another handful of bottling wands rather than pay the $13 for that thing. Lesson learned I guess.

My new paperweight.

I suppose that is just another reason to move in the direction of kegging.

Stay tuned for the official review!