The number of high quality fruit beer on the market is impressive. It seems like nearly every style of beer has a version made with real fruit and the use of fruit is no longer “restricted” to sour beers and wheat beers. With that in mind, last summer I wanted to write an article for Menuism and Huffington Post about fruit beer. I sought out several fruit beers and a couple of trends emerged. First, there are several fruit based gose-style beers available. Next, there are also numerous fruit IPAs. As a result, I wrote two articles, one about gose beer and another about fruit IPA. However, during my research, I sampled many more fruit beers that were not included in those two articles. Thus, this article includes the tasting notes for 23 wonderful fruit beers.

I have organized the list by style and within each style the beers are listed alphabetically. Enjoy!

Gose & Berlinerweisse

Brainey Melon Gose by Anderson Valley Brewing Company

Briney Melon builds on Anderson Valley’s Gose with the addition of watermelon. The watermelon flavor is moderate and natural tasting like a combination of cantaloup, watermelon, and cucumber. This beer has a slight tartness, a touch of malty-sweetness, and a pinch of savory salt. When put together this beer is quite flavorful and refreshing.

Cherry Ol’ Fritz by Black Acre Brewing

This is a Berliner Weisse beermade with sour cherries. It has a pale reddish-yellow color. The aroma has a tart quality to it with notes of tart cherries, fermented fruit, and a hint of wheat bread. The flavor is quite tart up front but smooths out in the finish. It is a nicely balanced sour that is clean and has just the right amount of fruit flavor. This type of sour is not too complex but it is refreshing.

Fruitlands Passionfruit and Guava by Modern Times Beer

This gose-style beer has a cloudy yellow color with a thin white head. It has some grainy notes like crackers with tropical notes from the passion fruit. It also has a salt water spray quality to it from the salt in the beer. The flavor is not very sweet at all and is moderately tart with a birght fruity passion fruit and guava flavor. The sourness of the beer combined with the fruit flavors and salt make this quite a refreshing beer. Towards the end of the bottle the beer was much more cloudy with more fruit flavors from the guava. This is a very nice fruit gose.

Otra Vez Gose by Sierra Nevada

The beer is brewed with grapefruit and cactus. The aroma has grapefruit peel and just a hint of grapefruit juice. The salt and cactus give this an agave quality. It has a hint of lemon juice aroma as well. It is quite tart but with a fruit juice sourness not like a vinegar sourness. It also has a slight saltiness to it. The flavor is not quite as salty as other Gose beers. Overall, it is almost like a mimosa with grapefruit and lemon. It’s crisp, refreshing, and quite amazing with a crystal clear straw color.

At the California Craft Brewers Association Summit in Sacramento in September 2017, I had the opportunity to try Chateau Otra Vez, which is this beer aged in Chardonnary barrels and it was fantastic.

Peach Dodo by Rhinegeist Brewery

Peach Dodo has a lemon-like acidity, a touch of salt water, and a tinge of fresh peaches. The flavor is tart with some salt on the finish. This is a fairly dry beer making it crisp and refreshing. The fruit is subtle yet enjoyalbe and it is definitely not sweet and cloying. This is a well done gose fruit beer.

Wheat

Mango Wheat by Anchor Brewing

Mango Wheat pours out with a crystal clear amber yellow color. The aroma is dominated by fresh cut mangoes coupled with a touch of wheat and grains. The flavor is brings out more of the flavor of the wheat and barley grains with little to no sweetness and just a hint of herbal bitterness. The texture is effervescent and quite refreshing. Mango is a flavor that can be overwhelming but Anchor did a great job of balancing this beer to smell fruity but taste like beer. The low 4.5% makes this a refreshing and quaffable session beer.

Orange Wheat by Hangar 24 Craft Brewery

Orange Wheat has a strong smell of fresh squeezed orange juice, orange peel, and pith. It has an inviting tangy smell accompanied by a hint of grainy, bready aroma. It has the perfect blend of fresh natural oranges and wheat beer without being sweet and candy-like. Just like the smell it has flavors or orange juice and slightly tart and acidic making it clean and crisp. The malt reveals itself as a slight grainy sweetness of wheat and barley while finishing more dry than sweet. There is little to no discernible bitterness in this beer. Read more in my full review.

Wailua Wheat by Kona Brewing

This crystal clear pale-yellow beer has a light fragrance of passion fruit and herbal hops with notes of white bread and copper. The passionfruit quality is stronger when you taste the beer but the fruit flavor is still light. It is not sweet and not bitter. This beer is surprisingly medium bodied with an almost fruit juice viscosity to it. Overall, it is refreshing but light on fruit flavors.

Saison & Witbier

Avery Liliko’i Kepolo

This is a Belgian-style witbier made with traditional spices and passionfruit, also known as lilikoi. This beer pours out a cloudy yellow color that is almost like a pineapple or passionfruit juice. The aroma has notes of a traditional Belgian witbier with a slight citrus spice, banana, and cloves. It has a very fruity aroma and flavor with tons of passionfruit and hint of pineapple. This beer has some sweetness but is not cloying due to a slight sourness from the fruit. It has a medium body with a thick fruit juice like viscosity. It is both delicious and refreshing and another great example of merging fruit and a specific beer style.

Blood Orange Saison by Upslope Brewing

This beer is made with blood oranges and pink peppercorns. Is is cloudy with a burnt orange color. The aroma is predominantly from saison yeast: fruity, banana, pepper, and cloves. There is also a noticeable aroma of the very ripe citrus like a blood orange. The aroma also has notes of fruity bananas and citrus, which makes it almost breakfast-like. The flavor is mostly dry with a light to moderate amount of herbal bitterness. The flavor accentuates the blood orange fruit and brings out a hint of the peppercorn. The citrus fruit is subtle but goes nicely with the saison style.

Universal Friend by Modern Times

This saison is made with pinot noir grape must. It pours out with a reddish-brown or burnt red color, almost like a mix of beer and pinot noir. It’s a shade darker than a rose wine. The aroma has the classic banana and cloves of a saison plus a fruity hint of the wine grapes. Has a nice pinot grape aspect to it. The flavor is slightly sweet with an herbal, astringent herbal quality. Despite the presence of the grapes, it still tastes more like a beer than a wine.

IPA

Blood Transfusion IPA by Track 7 Brewing

This beer is wheat IPA made with blood oranges. It has a cloudy pale yellow-orange color. The aroma is a nice combination of hops and fruit that accentuates the qualities of citrus and orange peel. The citrus aroma is followed by a hint of sweet grains. When combined with the orange aromas, the flavor has a bitterness that is almost like citrus pith and it’s not an over the top bitterness. It’s just enough to classify it as an IPA. The beer is well balanced, it’s it not sweet but has just the right amount of malt to make this a refreshing. The orange aromas and flavors are well integrated with the IPA, the fruit is noticeable but does not take over the beer.

Squeeze Box by SweetWater Brewing

This is an IPA made with real grapefruit. The appearance has a slightly hazy, burnt orange color. It has an aroma of citrus, grapefruit, pine resin, flowers, and tropical fruit. The flavor has a nice malty, not very sweet quality which is balanced by a smooth pith-y bitterness. This is a refreshing and delicious grapefruit IPA.

Stout & Porter

Cherry Chocolate Stout by Sierra Nevada

This 8.5% stout is made with Bing cherries and cherry juice and then aged on cocoa nibs. It pours out black, not too viscous, and has a light brown head. The aroma has notes of rich bittersweet chocolate, cream, a touch of espresso, and a faint nuance of dark cherries. The flavor is sweet with a roasted bitterness and the slightest hint of cherry sourness but the sweetness is predominant.

High Peaks Chocolate Orange by Saranac Brewery

This porter is made with blood orange peel and cacao nibs. It pours out as a thick, vicious, black beer with a foamy brown head. The aroma is bittersweet chocolate, toffee, a hint of nuttiness like pecans, burnt sugar, some cold brew coffee, and notes of candied orange peel. The flavor sweet and chocolatey but it also has a significant bitter quality. The bitterness is a combination of roasted bitterness from the black malt as well as a sharp bitter punch from the hops, which enhanced the bittersweet chocolate aspects of the beer. It is quite viscous.

Shakedown Imperial Chocolate Cherry Stout by Starr Hill Brewery

Shakedown is made with bittersweet chocolate and cherry puree. This beer is opaque black with a creamy light brown head. The aroma has notes of espresso, dark chocolate, chalk, and roasted malt with a muted cherry quality to it. Despite being a 9.0% imperial stout, this beer is not overly sweet. It has a roasted dryness and a coffee-like bitterness to it. There is some sweetness to the flavor but it is muted and balanced by the hop and roasted malt bitterness and a some acidity from the cherries.

Sour Beer

Apricot Ale by Cascade Brewing

Cascade makes many wonderful sour beer and they definitely excel at the fruit sours. The aromas of this beer are musky, earthy, fresh and juicy with apricot and sour fruit vinegar qualities. It also has a slight oak and vanilla aroma when combined with the fruit aromas reminds me of a creamsicle. The Flavor is quite tart with just a hint of fruity sweetness and plenty of sour apricots flavor. This is a fantastic sour beer.

La Roja du Kriek by Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

This beer is the cherry version of Jolly Pumpkin’s classic barrel-aged sour beer. It pours out a murky burnt-orange color. It is frothy and quite effervescent. In fact, it almost foamed out of the bottle before I poured it. The aroma has a funky musk with farmy notes and horse blanket. The cherry notes are very subtle. Tastes like you have a cherry pit in your mouth but it is not cherry or fruit forward. It is also quite earthy with a slight malt and caramel note to it. This is a complex sour beer that happens to pair nicely with BBQ ribs.

Lips of Faith Lychee by New Belgium Brewing

The initial aroma is a light sourness with a slight sour funk and is a little musky. This is followed by bright and lively berry notes with a candy-like fruit aroma. If you’re familiar with lychee, the flavor and aroma is definitely present but not terribly overwhelming. The flavor is a little tart with a little residual sugar. It has a nice refreshing balance, easy drinking for a sour, and is an approachable sour beer.

Nautilus by Omnipollo

This is a sour ale made with blueberry, vanilla, and lactose sugar. Lactose sugar is also known as milk sugar and it is generally not fermentable so it adds a creamy sweetness to the beer. As soon I started pouring the beer I was struck by its interesting red raspberry, pastel red color. The aroma has a sour funk with hints of barnyard and rubber but this is all overshadowed by the sweet berries and white balsamic aromas. It’s like a white balsamic berry vinaigrette. The flavor is tart but not intense, which is likely due to the presence of milk sugar. The aroma is a litte like blackberry but the flavor brings it back to fresh blueberry territory. This was a crowd pleaser. It was moderately complex but still approachable.

Other Fruit Beer

Aniara by Omnipollo

This beer is a pale ale made with lemon juice. The aroma has note of lemons, citrus hops, and some pine. The flavor is an interesting combination of a hoppy pale ale and lemon juice. It has some of the the bitterness of a pale with the sourness of lemons. It has no sweetness at all. Quite an interesting beer.

Berry the Hatchet by Coronado Brewing

Berry the Hatchet is a fruit forward beer that focuses on the flavors of the red raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries. The aroma is like fresh berries with a few malt hints that remind you this is still a beer. The flavor is tart, crisp, a little sweet, and quite refreshing. It is a cloudy pink beer that focuses on the fruit but it also quite a pleasant experience.

Cucumber Kolsch by Flat 12

This is a Kölsch-style beer with tons of cucumber aroma. This beer is made with all pilsen malt, Kölsch yeast, and Liberty hops. For the cucumber flavor, 5 gallons of cucumber extract (made by mashing down cucumbers) is added to the bright tank to 3100 gallons of beer. Despite being 0.16% cucumber the aroma has tons of it. The aroma is mostly very sweet cucumber flesh but there is also notes of an cucumber skin, which has an herbal quality to it. The flavor is not sweet, it’s slightly bitter and crisp. It might taste sweet but don’t be fooled, the “sweetness” is primarily in the aroma. This is quite a refreshing fruit beer.