Weekly Beer Focus - Fruit/Non-traditional organic additives (but not coffee) beers - May 13-22

Might as well get this one going. I like Matt’s proposal in the WTF thread (copied and pasted without his permission):
the category ‘Non-traditional organic additives’; organic meaning something grown, of course. Pumpkin beers would suffice if you still have one, but I would also throw in chili peppers, and for the sake of argument throw out coffee or chocolate just because they always seem to have their day in stout tastings. I’m sure there are more than a few hemp beers out there folks could give a try. Any sort of weird ingredient you wouldn’t put under any other category is worth trying to justify, whatever it takes to try something a little different for a change.

Mods: please sticky.

St. Peter’s Brewery- Fruit Beer (Grapefruit) - (Suffolk, U.K.)
Clear auburn-orange color. Little-to-no head. Smells like pure orange/grapefruit juice on the Nose. Medium-light to medium bodied. Light grapefruit pith flavor dominates on the palate. One can detect a bit of “wheatiness” from the wheat beer base on the finish. Finish is medium-short and of medium-light intensity. 4.7% alc. not noticeable; those who like American IPA’s but often consider them “too hoppy” might really like this beer, as it has a similar taste profile, but not nearly as roided-up as most American IPA’s. The perfect spring or summer beer, imo. 8.5/10.

Do malt and hops count?

Dipwad.

bummer 'cuz this is what I’ve got lined up for tonight and maybe tomorrow.

Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf a Imperial/Double IPA
Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA a Imperial/Double IPA

DLD pickup? Those were gone by the time I made it to the table. But had a couple of Panzer Wolf glasses on tap last week…tasty.

On topic: fruit beer. Beermenus.com says my local bar has Dogfish Head Black & Blue on tap, GI Sofie, and 3F Rabbid Rabbit. Will get to work on those this weekend.

Purchased today in Palatine. they also had the DFH B&B so maybe I’ll head back.

Though, this week I’ve had a few Magic Hat #9 that has an apricot addition. It is the beer of the month at my beer joint.
Not bad but not something I’m going to be drinking a lot of…

Seems like a pretty gimmicky category.

I’ll try a couple just for the hell of it, but will be shocked if I like anything. Stranger things have happened though I guess.

These guys use some non-traditional additives (seaweed, heather, etc. …): Williams Brothers Brewing Company

DFH aprihop and festina peche are GREAT examples that will suprise you, IMO. There are plenty of others, that I feel are good examples of well used fruit/additives in beers.

Not all fruit beers are sweet or girly, some are very well used, but unfortunately the category does get a bad rep… Another one to try (that does fall into the category of sweet/girly, but is still refreshing and tasty) is Kasteel Rouge, a Belgian ale with cherries.

Thanks Hollis.

That seaweed beer is a fun treat, actually goes awesomely with smoked salmon. It used to be that seaside malt growers would harvest and shred seaweed to use as fertilizer, infusing their malts with a briney flavor (take THAT, terrior-haters!). Since that practice isn’t in use these days, they use an edible seaweed instead.

SAISON DUPONT BIER DU MIEL (HONEY BEER)-I was blessed about ten years ago to get an intimate tour of Dupont. At the time this honey beer was a very small production and never came into the U.S. After trying it there, I called their importer Vanberg & Dewulf every 6-8 months to bug them about trying to get it until it eventually came. So I would like to think- probably delusions of grandeur, but a nice thought- that I had some small part in getting this as a bigger part of their roatation. To me this is the epitome of all honey beers, and a prime example of why ‘Saison’ is not a single beer style but a mindset. The honey is organic and artisan (not honey from the head of a bear), and is used during fermentation and fermented completely, so there is no added sweetness from the use of honey, only a slightly higher abv compared to the regular Saison Dupont. The nose is still crisp and floral but with a deeper malty, almost oaty note and a richer, rounder texture on the palate that you wouldn’t necessarily place as honey if you weren’t told about it before. The honey actually shows the most when the glass is mostly empty (which happens all too quickly), and as a very subtle character that works perfectly with the malt, like honey on toast. For me, a 750ml of this is a one man task, as one glass isn’t nearly enough.

I picked-up the aforementioned seaweed and heather brews today … as well as the Wells - Banana Bread beer.

Matt, glad to hear the seaweed beer is actually good – I was kind of expecting it to be gross, but I’d obviously take better than that!

BlueMoon at twice the price!
I like this DFH but at $9 for the bottle I’m sticking with other whites

Belgian whites are one of those beer styles that is sort of a waste of being ‘extreme-d’ by someone like Dogfish Head. I love Namaste, and think it’s one of the very best of the style, but you can only take it so far. Wine wise, it’s like making a $100, 3/4 ton per acre Muscadet. Very little return for the extreme effort.

Had this last week, which is described as “Ale brewed with raisins”. Guess that qualifies. Since I was in the middle of a full blown cold and was playing games with my daughter while drinking it, I can’t say much about it other than I enjoyed it. I just didn’t want to be accused of not participating in the focus.

Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about this one.

I’ll see if I can pick something up on the way home to pop tonight.

The return of the $2 coupon at Total Wine should help.

I will see if I can grab at least one to try this weekend. I’ve been moving and have been a little out of touch.

I have a couple I’ll have to tack-on next weekend … with our move into our permanent housing last week, I don’t have internet until next Saturday (and don’t have access to my beers until then, either).