I brewed a simple berry wheat extract beer for the summer party at our house. It happened to be my baby girl’s first birthday as well, which was the real reason we invited over 50 people to come hang with us. Since our two other kids are born in the winter, I think my wife and I got a little excited to be able to have a large, mostly outdoor party.

A feature of that party was the berry wheat beer. I got labels for the bottles and everything (Thanks Zumula!)

Berry Wheat Beer

This beer had some noteworthy elements to it. It sat on 3 pounds of mixed berries for two weeks. I didn’t really know if that was too much or not. What I was trying to avoid is ending up with too much fruit taste and not enough beer taste.

The second element was the carbonation. I put in enough priming sugar to get the batch up to 3 – 3.5 volumes of CO2. My goal was to get the berry aroma up front.

When I first tasted it, I thought – too berry and too carbonated. Now, I tasted it when it was fairly warm so I hoped that the taste would be a little more mellow at a lower temperature – like ice bucket temperature.

Well, I was pleased to see that the beer was received favorably. Mike had some nice things to say – it had a nice mix of beer and fruit.  He was also happy about how the Cry Havoc strain finished the beer.  My friend the hop head who I was certain would like it had a good number of bottles.

I think as craft and homebrewed beer drinkers, we have some preconceived notions of fruit beer. Maybe it is because of what is available commercially. Maybe it’s because we have been taught that beer should taste like beer and nothing else.

I will type this: On a hot summer day, fruit beer is a big hit with the party crowds…and why not?

Beer is good. Fruit is good. Done right and maybe at the right time and place, fruit beer is great.