The fruit/vegetable beer style is hard to execute successfully. On occasion I have tasted fruity flavored beers that are quite tasty, but the style is usually heavily unbalanced, the malt and hop flavors of the brew are downplayed so the fruit flavor can dominate. Fruit and citrus flavors that come through in a subtle way can add a lot to an ale, but when the fruit is overwhelming it feels like you're drinking a 5th grade science experiment gone wrong. The Samuel Smith Organic Raspberry Fruit Ale is a perfect example of a fruit beer where the negatives outweigh any positive qualities.
The fruit ale pours like an old-fashioned soda but it doesn't drink like one. The weak, fizzy, and light ale is overpowered by a sticky, tangy, and syrup like raspberry flavoring that reminds you of ingesting cherry flavored cough medicine as a child rather than tasting your favorite berry. Although the brew is light, thin, and fizzy, it is more of sipping beer, the reddish liquid is tart and jammy causing intense mouth puckering and strange facial expressions among tasters.
I questioned the beer buyer at Whole Foods Market as to why they carry the product and was informed that it's organic nature made it one of the only fruit ales possible to place on the shelf. Many classic fruit beers, such as the Cherry Boon Kriek from Belgium, contain artificial flavorings and preservatives that don't jive with the market's whole planet, whole person philosophies. If you want to try a decent and slightly fruity beer try the Dogfish Head Festina Peche (a neo-Berliner Weissbier brewed with peach concentrate) If your obsessed with raspberries and are fine with a beer tasting more like medicine or a wine spritzer than an ale, try the Samuel Smith variety, otherwise... avoid.
Grade: C-
ABV:5%
No comments:
Post a Comment