There’s not a lot of gray area on fruit beers. You like ’em or you hate ’em. You are not indifferent about them. The people who hate them find them offensive to beer drinking, ordinarily because they are gimmicky. Redd’s Apple Ale qualifies. So do the Shock Top beers. Some fruit beers (Abita Purple Haze, for instance) are good. Others (Wild Blue, for instance) are not.

The question becomes how the fruit is used. For instance, consider the shandy. I like a shandy from time to time, but they are intended to be a 50/50 mix of beer and juice. I’m also a big fan of what Great South Bay and Elysian have done with blood orange in their beers. They utilize the fruit to enhance the hop character of their beers, bringing real citrus to the hoppy citrus flavor. The gimmicky beers use the fruit as a mask for their inferior product. Shock Top and Redd’s are like the MSNBC or Fox News of beers. Just because they have distribution and big budgets behind them doesn’t necessarily make them good.

In 2012, The Wife and I went to San Francisco to walk around and look at stuff. During one particular evening, after deciding that good tickets to the Giants game were out of our range, we wandered up 2nd Street and landed at 21st Amendment Brewery’s restaurant in SoMa. While waiting for dinner (see review here), we sat at the bar and I made proceeded to make my way down the taps. The first beer I got was Hell or High Watermelon, a wheat beer that uses fresh watermelon to provide an unexpected flavor to its otherwise clean-finishing beer.

On its merits, this is a solid American wheat beer that would stand alone. The addition of the watermelon adds a familiar flavor that makes you go back for more. It’s not sweet or sticky, instead tasting like the smell of a freshly cracked melon.

Is it gimmicky, in the way that Redd’s Apple Ale or Wild Blue lager are gimmicky? No. Is it a gimmick? Probably. What in craft beer isn’t a gimmick these days. But, for all of the fruit beers demanding your attention on the shelf, this one is the label worth buying.

Brewer: 21st Amendment Brewery

Beer: Hell Or High Watermelon

Style: Wheat beer/fruit beer

ABV: 4.9% IBU: 17

Container: 12 oz. can

Price: $8.99 (six-pack of cans) Point of Purchase: Byrne Dairy, Liverpool, N.Y.

To The Eye: Golden and hazy. Fluffy head that stays throughout.

To The Nose: Imagine a bowlful of watermelon rind. Got it? Now stick your face in the bowl and inhale.

To The Palate: Medium carbonation, big watermelon flavor and a medium body. The ale is otherwise balanced and clean.

Aftertaste: A little watery with a watermelon aftertaste.

Boozy Factor: Negligible.

On a Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as highest: 8.5