The Session #6

Its that time of the month again, the 6th Session! This time hosted by Greg over at Beer beats and bites the theme is Fruit Beer. Lucky for me its not just lambic's we are talking about, but any beer brewed with fruit. Greg's talk of Strawberries at his local farmer's market is what led me in the direction of the ale I chose. While not quite fruit from my local market, it does have that type of quality to it. The beer is brewed with local fruit (local to the brewery that is). I found Atlantic Brewing's Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale at my local Central Market, and its something that I have wanted to try for a while, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a taste.
The Brewery: Atlantic Brewing is based out of Bar Harbor Maine. It was found in 1991 and is still a fairly small brewery, only brewing 60 kegs a day according to their website. Another neat thing that they do is they try not to use big distributors instead choosing small local distributors. For instance in Texas the distributor is Spec's Warehouse and not a national company. The brewery makes a wide range of beers from a standard Pale Ale to a 6 month aged Porter and a year long aged Barley wine. Something tells me I was going to like this Blueberry beer.
The Beer: The beer pours a reddish amber with a quarter inch tan head. The nose is FULL of blueberries, maybe a bit of citrus from hops, but no noticeable maltiness, however it may have been hidden behind the blueberries. The mouth was surprising as it didn't have the sugary sweetness that I was afraid of. Instead there were notes of blueberries, some maltiness starts to show up, with minimal hop bitterness. A slight metallic tinge showed up at the end, maybe from the skins of blueberries and thats really the only fault I have with this beer. A very good solid fruit beer, that's not ruined by sugary sweetness. A beer that displays its fruit with out allowing it to take over the beer. I'd give it a good strong B+. What do the folks at BA have to Say?
Now head over to Beer, Beats, and Bites for more Fruit Beers