As the summer winds down, I am reflecting on some of the beers I enjoyed this summer. I decided to check my Instagram and Untappd accounts. For fun, I dipped a bit further back to last summer to compare and found that I had a lot of fun again with fruity beers and New England Style IPA. I’m a slave to flavor.
Fruit or fruity beers are not for everyone. But that could be said about sours or stouts, and I let them into my life, so why not fruit beers? The fruit beers of today, are far more complex than the over-sweetened, one-level brews of your past. In today’s fruit style beers, you’ll find much to like, in varying layers of flavor that will remind you of the structure of some pretty good wines.
One such fruit beer that I’ve enjoyed for a few years, but never wrote about is the Blueberry Juele from 4204 Main Street Brewing Company.
The Back Story
The Blonde Juele is the base beer for the Blueberry Juele. It is a lovely blonde ale named after Julia Kennedy, one of the owners of 4204 Main Street. They wanted to blend it with fruit, and after several tries, they had great luck with the blueberry. Brewed with fresh blueberries and honey, it is not as sugary as you might think, but you still get the smell and taste of blueberries and a hint of honey.
Tasting Notes
Blueberry Juele pours easy, slightly hazy, with a lovely reddish-blue color. On the nose, you’ll get some tartness, all the blueberries you want, with a nice bready note. On the tongue, you’ll once again get that tart blueberry cut with by the crisp blonde ale, and the taste of honey on the end, without a lot of residual sweetness.
