Warmer temperatures, longer days, and greenery in spring are a cause for celebration. Welcoming the season is about smelling the flowers, literally. Summer will sneak up on us before we know it, so make sure you take the time to appreciate nature’s revival before the heat wave hits. The beginning of spring can be a good time to find a way or a place to enjoy the outdoors. Folks tidy up and prepare their outdoor living spaces. College basketball concludes while Major League Baseball warms up. And breweries switch some of their taps to beers brewed with flowers, fruit, and lighter notes in mind. Check out these styles perfect for y’all to stay refreshed this March! You’re welcome.
This first beer by Abita Brewing will surely get you excited for spring 2025. It’s a modern take on the classic, utilizing the mild weather, longer daylight hours, and overall perfect conditions. Strawberry season varies by region and weather conditions, but it is usually in the spring. The juice of red, ripe Louisiana strawberries, harvested at the peak of the season, gives this crisp lager its strawberry flavor, aroma and haze. Made with pilsner and wheat malts and Vanguard hops, all these Harvest Series brews are made with the finest Louisiana-grown ingredients. The poster child for fruity beers, the inspiration for this brew came from an old friendship and a love for fresh fruit. This fruited lager is bursting with berries and a light citrus to balance things out. And to the nose, you smell melon as it leaps out at you. Your taste buds are welcomed with wildflowers as a rich, creamy sweetness sets the stage for a delightfully light body. As the flavors reveal themselves, the beer quickly explodes with flavor, exposing a background of strawberry bonbons, and a soda pop fizz. The beer’s brisk acidity takes all the edge off the richness and intertwines itself with the bitterness of the hops for a refreshing juicy beverage.
Maybe you’re looking for something a little more decadent. The availability of smoothie sour ales is endless, the depths of which appear limitless. Abomination Brewing Company has taken this quite literally with their new creation, Endless Depths. Bearing fruits of tangerine, prickly pear, calamansi, mango, starfruit, and blackberries all rounded out by an infusion of black lava salt to round out the parade of equatorial flavors. This take on the style stands out in a meaningful way. Endless Depths pour is dense, slightly rusty in its fog and with the consistency of a milkshake. Your nose is supplied with tropical notes taking you through the kaleidoscope of aforementioned fruits and flavors; the scent seems to cover its bases. Rich, fruity, and complex, this fruited sour lives up to its name with endless depths of flavor.
A lot of bold brass flavors in those last few so let’s draw it back a bit with something for everyone. Ciders are great while things start to warm up and you might as well get ahead of those summer cider heads and check out this new Ciderboys refreshment. A mirage of raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry emerges in boysenberry. This sweet-tart delicacy matures to a deep maroon then swirls with hand-picked apples to form a quenchable tart Zen Berry Cider by Ciderboys Cider. From the first sip bursting with citrus and raspberry flavor, your taste buds are welcomed with peony and blackberry as a rich, clean sweetness sets the stage for a delightfully sour body. As the flavors reveal themselves, the cider quickly rushes with candied notes of lemon heads, passionfruit, and Swedish fish. Sweet/Sour and oh so refreshing.
Today, the world of fruit beer offers more fun, unique, and refreshing brews than ever before. But there is so much more to it than beer shandies and spiked lemonades. Various fruits are used in the beverages and breweries that will be covered, ranging from tart citrus fruits to sweet berries. They may stretch the typical taste perceptions of beer while keeping that iconic hoppy flavor, or they might leave you questioning what beer is capable of becoming. Come down to your local Mellow Mushroom, crack open one of these beers and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
-by Maeve Black
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