"fruit beer" news and stories

"Is there coffee in that beer?" my girlfriend asks, pointing to a bottle of BridgePort Brewing's Stumptown Tart standing tall on the kitchen table. As a confirmed coffee junkie, she joneses for anything java-related, especially if it's from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

Sadly, I must break her latte-loving heart. Stumptown, I explain, is Portland's old nickname, so-called because the stumps of the trees felled to create roads lingered behind. She nods, crestfallen. "Don't be bummed," I say, pointing to the beer's label featuring a swimsuit-clad pin-up model surrounded by raspberries, "this is even better."

Released this month, Stumptown Tart is BridgePort's category-busting fruit beer. Don't be frightened by the fruit. Stumptown results from the skillful blending of two batches of Belgian-style Tripels. One batch rested in French-oak chardonnay and pinot noir barrels for a year, while another unaged batch was brewed with Oregon-grown raspberries. "The beer's tartness comes from the fruit," says head brewer Karl Ockert, "not from lactobacillus or acidophilus" -- yeasts that create super-sour flavors.

It's been 16 days since I suggested we declare August "Fruit Beer Month" and it finally looks like the print press is catching up with me. I recently saw on the wire that "Light, refreshing fruit-based beers are way hot for summer." Duh! That's what I've been trying to tell you.

But in her article, Lauren Chapin points out some interesting facts:

1) "In 2007, fruit beer sales grew a stunning 37 percent, making it the fastest-growing segment of the beer industry, according to Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association." This figure is in comparison to a 16% growth in craft beers sales overall for '07 (as also determined by the Brewers Association). Thus, it comes as no surprise why '08 has felt like the summer of fruit beers. If you don't like 'em, don't blame me, blame capitalism!

Find two more interesting aspects after the jump...

If you purchase beer on a regular basis, you've probably noticed an uptick in the number of fruity beers (and I'm not talking about Schmitts Gay). Fruit flavors such as lime, blueberry and strawberry have been invading the suds on our shelves at an alarming rate, and even the big boys are getting in on the action: this summer America's #1 selling beer, Bud Light, introduced Bud Light Lime and Warsteinner (who takes great pride in brewing according to the German Purity of Law of 1516) introduced "Premium Mixes" consisting of 60% beer and a 40% mixture flavored as Orange, Lemon or... achem... Cola.

However, the most interesting and inspired fruit infusion experiments are still happening on the craft beer level. Smaller breweries originally jump started the trend during the formative years of American craft brewing in the early '90s. While macro-breweries were trying to juggle members of the mass market, microbreweries were carefully carving out niches. Fruit flavors originally appeared in domestic craft beers as a novelty but the trend not only stuck, it's growing. Why? Well, yes, they can be more quaffable (which is probably why Anheuser Busch and Warsteiner jumped on the boat), but so is a wine cooler or a Midori Sour. The true secret behind the trend: Fruit is the great equalizer, a flavor for the proletariat!