Beers in Review: Fruity

Today's trio of beers have one thing in common: all have some sort of fruit used in their recipes. Let's dive in!

Leading off is the Lexington Spring IPA from Natty Greene's Brewing Company. This IPA uses smoked malts and fresh peaches for their unique flavor. Pouring a hazy deep gold color, the peaches merge will with hops for lots of citrus and tropical fruit flavor notes. There's plenty of peach specifically, of course, though the beer is not especially sweet. There are also some dank and piney hop notes, as well, and the beer has a pretty clean finish.

Next is Harpoon Brewery's Summer seasonal Camp Wannamango pale ale--feel free to guess the fruit addition. It pours a light gold color, and has some citrus hints, but the big hitters are mango and peach, with a bit of funk also present and a moderate hop bite at the very end. There is plenty of fruit pleasant in this pale ale, but like above, is isn't overpoweringly sweet, which I enjoy.

Finally, SPF 50/50, which is Red Hare Brewing Company's version of a Radler. Radlers are a German mixed-style of drink, where some type of beer is typically mixed with lemonade or something similar. Red Hare has taken their core Gangway IPA and mixed it with their own house-made grapefruit juice to create their unique India Pale Radler...can we call it an IPR? Anyway, it pours a pretty hazy straw-gold color, and is quite sweet, far sweeter than anything else reviewed here. The sweetness is cut slightly by a very light hop bite and some piney hop notes. Sweet grapefruit is the primary flavor note to this Radler--everything else is pretty well in the background. A well done beer, but a hair too sweet for me to enjoy more than one or two.

Beers in Review: Two Foothills and a Red Hare

Three beers on tap for this review. Let's get to it!

There are a couple of beers from Foothills Brewing to discuss, leading off with the Hoppyum IPA. This beer is semi-clear and golden in color with maybe a hint of ruby red grapefruit color. The first flavor that was pressed on me was a powerful piney hop presence that eventually led to some citrus notes and a hint of nuttiness. There was also a strong initial hop bite, but this dissipated in the flavor quite quickly. Overall, I find this beer tends to push more into the English- or American-style IPA than the more traditional IPA.

Next from Foothills is their Carolina Blonde. The target idea here is achieving that quintessential summer day beer--a concept we've discussed with other breweries/beers in the past. The execution is pretty spot on. Officially a cream ale, the Blonde pours a somewhat hazy gold color, and is generally low in body. Generally mild but quite noticeable flavors include a light fruity sweetness along with perhaps some bready or crackery notes. I also detected a little bit of grape or more likely grape skin flavor as well. The beer is not super crisp, but a slightly citrusy bite at the very end helps bring the "summer beer" concept together from beginning to end.

The last review for this entry is Red Hare Brewing Company's Watership Brown. It has a deep brown color, a medium-high body, and a lot of nice things going on with it. Malty flavors take the lead, including a delicious malted chocolate milkshake-style taste, along with some caramel sweetness and a slight bitterness. There was also an almost boozy note (or perhaps something chemical?) at the end, which surprised me (the ABV is 7.2%). I feel I should note that I have had some mild taste issues with this establishment's tap system in the past, so I can't conclusively decide (and in fact, highly doubt) that this was a beer flaw. Overall, my impression was 3/4 a really great beer, 1/4 something weird at the end. Regardless of issues, this is a beer I would have again in the future, and I will need to try to find this again and publish a follow-up.

Beers in Review: 3 beers, including an oldie and an oh-so-goodie

Red Hare Cotton Tail Pale Ale: A solid pale with largely piney hops, maybe with a hint of citrus (unless that was just hop bite). Pretty refreshing overall with a clean finish. Again, solid all around, but nothing too deep. At just 5% ABV, also fairly sessionable for a quality craft pale.

From time to time, beers tend to unintentionally stay in my pantry or fridge for a little too long. As a general rule, I tend to not publish reviews for these beers, as it can represent an unfair view of the beers' qualities. Rest assured, in a situation such as this one, I will always publicly make a note of it. While I have no doubt this beer's flavor changed, I found it still held up well, flavor-wise. The beer in question is Founders Centennial IPA. The hop profile tended to be in the background compared to flavors of dark fruit, possibly plum, and some caramel. There was also a fairly noticable booze note (7.2% ABV). The bottle was right at one year old, and I wonder if that contributed to some of sweetness, or at least the lesser hop notes. But I found it to still be a quite drinkable beer.

The final beer in this review is a simply legendary Abbey Ale from Brouwerij St. Bernardus. St. Bernardus Abt 12 is a Belgian Quad, and one of the original, long-time tentpoles of the craft beer industry. Coming in a 10% ABV, the boozy note comes through at the end of the sip as it warms up, but the flavor is dominated by dark fruit, red wine notes, and a solid cherry sweetness. It's exceptionally smooth, as those dark fruits follow all the way through the sip until the beer leaves your mouth. An excellent beer, to put it mildly, and one I can put on my imaginary top shelf of great beers I've tasted.