Why bother eating your daily dose of fruits, when you can drink them with your already delicious beer?  True, there is no nutritional value to a fruit ale, but I am allowed to dream.  For those people that want to enjoy something a little more refreshing for the summer, I always recommend a good fruit beer.  Here are a few I always turn to in a pinch:

Harpoon – Raspberry UFO- There are several flavors of the UFO but I find this one to be the most refreshing.  You don’t even need to add an orange slice for this unfiltered wheat.

Boston Beer Co., – Bunker Hill Blueberry – This ranks as one of my favorite beers because of the blueberry flavor.  I swear you can taste the stems of the berries.

Abita – Purple Haze – This is a crisp, clean raspberry ale that uses pureed raspberries as a base. I was surprised when I picked this up and so far I have it every summer.

Woodstock Inn Brewing – Weasel Wheat Raspberry Ale – Another clean raspberry ale from those folks in northern New Hampshire.  Always support your local brewers.

Spanish Peaks – Honey Raspberry Ale – This is a twist on an old favorite, and the honey flavor does very well with the raspberries.  This was another surprise from a few summers back.

Kona Brewing – Wailua Wheat – Passion fruit are a plenty in this distinct wheat ale.  You’ll soon be playing a ukulele and doing a hula dance if you have more than four.

Those are some of my favorite fruit ales; what are yours?  I try to taste as many new ones as I can get my hands on but it is good to have some familiar standbys.  If you know a few I should check out, let me know.

Bottle/Tap: Bottle

I’m always up for a red ale and I picked this up because the bottle was cool looking.  Well, it was red – I just don’t think I let it age long enough.  There are some beers you can buy and crack open the same day.  There are some beers that you should buy and forget about for months and then rediscover in the bottom of the cellar like an old friend you’ve had tied up under stairwell.  This beer was one of the latter.

I poured this in my large pint glass and let it sit for minute.  I’ve seen red ales, but this ale was very red, a clear red.  There was nothing murky looking about this beer.  The aroma was strong.  The bottle tells you that this beer was brewed with tart fruit and hints of oak.  I’m telling you that I found the fruit and none of the oak.  This beer was very tart, not like the sour ale, and wasn’t too pleasant.

It was not a bitter beer; the tartness took over all the other flavors there could have been floating around.  I became accustomed to the flavor; still that tartness of the fruit hit me every time. I have to be honest; I couldn’t bring myself to drink it all and disposed of the rest.

Had I let this beer sit in the cellar for months and brought it out for company, I bet it would have tasted better.  The beer had been chilled and let stand in a glass before I drank it; I just think that letting it age would have helped the flavor.  There were two other bottles in this series and I would imagine the same rules apply.  If you happen to see this and have the extra change to drop, make sure you let it hang for a while.

Bottle/Tap; Bottle, pint +6

Nothing quenches my thirst better on a 96 degree day than a large pint of coffee stout.  Well, I’m lying; I had this beer a few months ago and forgot to do a write up.  Since stouts remind me of winter months, you can call this wishful thinking.  I’ve also been very lazy in the heat as of late and haven’t tried any new beers.

I shared this beer with a few friends that enjoy stouts.  We all commented on the Coca-Cola like quality of the pour and strong coffee aroma.  This beer is 100% Vermont made; not the maple syrup, but with coffee from the Vermont Coffee Company.  You can taste the java in each sip and at 8% this was a strong stout that would be good to share with people.

I was impressed with the rich smoked flavor and I liked the caramel aftertaste.  My friends agreed that this was a great coffee stout through and through.  The measure of a beer like this is how well it tastes as you get closer to the end of the bottle.  I found that the coffee flavor let up when I finished my glass, a good sign.

On a whole, I enjoyed this beer and would enjoy it a lot more if the temperatures were sub-zero instead of triple digits; wishful thinking, indeed.  I have still seen this on shelves in some stores, if you have a chance to pick one up and let it sit until the fall you’d be doing yourself a favor.  I have a feeling this is a beer that will age pretty well, just keep it in a cool dry place and enjoy on a chilly evening.

Bottle/Tap: Bottle

This moment has been a long time coming.  The Beer Works restaurants are a common hangout in Boston and if you enjoy a fine micro brew, you’d do well to swing by their locations.  When I first had the blueberry ale it was at the Fenway location in 2005 after a concert and I get it every time.  The only way you could bring some home is if you bought a growler and trucked it around with you, but not anymore.  On a recent trip we came across this beer in a six-pack at one of my normal spots and I almost flipped.

I brought the beer home, put two in the fridge and let them chill for a while.  This is one beer that I like to drink cold because it tastes great.  I poured the beer in a glass, found some frozen blueberries in the freezer and dropped some in the glass.  I had a drink and was brought back to Boston, all I needed was a bucket of fries and I would have been set.

Since this was my first blueberry beer, it does hold a special place in my heart.  The blueberry flavor isn’t very strong, but the smell is great and the golden body is inviting.  With this beer, and other fruit beers, it helps to add the fruit to the drink.  As the blueberries float and sink they seem to enhance the taste of the beer.

I have been meaning to go back to the Beer Works since this is the time of year they brew the watermelon ale.  Nothing says summer like a pint with a piece of watermelon hanging on the rim.  With luck, more of their beers will make it to 6-pack status and you’ll be able to take them home with ease.

Bottle/Tap: Bottle, pint +6

Do not let the name deceive you; this is no small beer.   What the name refers to is a brewing tradition where two beers would be made out of the same mash.  You’d have your first large batch and you use what was left to create a smaller batch of beer, a younger sibling if you will.  This beer is the younger sibling of Old Foghorn Barelywine and you can tell.  I picked this up on a whim and I had to read a little bit about it before I almost threw it out.  Let me explain.

Since I didn’t know what to expect, I tried to keep an open mind.  The aroma was subtle and bitter and the taste was bitter in a burnt sort of way.  I had a few swallows before I read the label a bit closer and realized that it was supposed to taste this way.  When you hear people order a ‘pint of bitter’ this is as close to that style beer as you can get.  Since it was made from the leftovers of a barelywine there were plenty of bitter and burnt notes all around.

At first, I didn’t like it very much.  The beer had been sitting in the fridge and I took it out then poured it in a large glass and thought it looked like a regular pale ale.  This ‘small’ beer packs a big taste and that was apparent as soon as it touched my lips.  When I got over the bitter taste I noticed that there was a dry aftertaste as well.  This was one of the strangest styles of beer I’ve ever encountered, ranks up there with the sour ale, however I thought it was pretty good.