Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager

Brewed by Abita Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Covington, Louisiana USA

Appearance: Pours a clear, yellow body with a small, tight, cotton white head. Smell: Strawberries!! Taste: Strong, sweet strawberry flavor, like you’d get from a kid’s sugary sweet breakfast cereal with some strawberry yogurt stirred in. No bitterness or real hop character. Finishes same. Mouthfeel: Light-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: If you dig lagers and sweet strawberries, then you could definitely go for this. For me, it was a bit too sweet.

I really liked this at first but it didn’t hold up on multiple tastings. While I was in New Orleans it was fun to try to find it (it is really popular and bars go through the limited supply quickly). Abita makes a really smooth beer but the finish is kind of weak. Unless you get this fresh it doesn’t hold up well, I brought a six pack home to Buffalo and by the time I got to it the taste had flattened out

4-29-08 bottle - blind sample
Clear pale yellow with a thin (very thin) white head is short lived. Very light dough lemon smell. Somehow this seems like an Anheuser-Busch attempt at a really mild and bland Hefeweizen. Flavor is watery lemon and fruit. Palate is highly carbonated and thin. Overall, weak and watery.

Pours rich amber with an orangish tint and is cloudy in appearance. Small head. Aroma mostly of strawberry but also a little bit of beer. Taste is a little malty, has a good strawberry flavor and a dry finish. A nice beer substitute for wine. Mouthfeel has a nice lively character.

Pours a pale, hazy golden color with a thin white head that dissipates quickly but leaves a minimal head for quite a while. No lacing. Very light smell of malts, hops, and yeast, but it’s the strawberries that dominate this smell. Strawberries again with a nice malty backbone. Tastes like a liquid strawberry shortcake or strawberry yogurt. Clean, dry finish with the faintest hop presence. Light bodied, watery and highly carbonated. Nice and clean. This would be an ideal beer on a hot, humid Louisiana afternoon. I wouldn’t put it at the top of my list of fruit beers, but I found it quite drinkable.

Pours a hazy yellowish color with a short lived smallish white head. Smell is sweet malt and strawberry candy, and a bit strange. Taste is like strawberry cereal and reminds me of the milk at the bottom of the bowl. Medium bodied with normal carbonation. Hint of odd sourness. Not that great.

Bottle. Pours a clear golden with a small white head. Aroma of strawberries and light pilsner malt. Taste is pilsner malt with a hint of strawberries. Medium mouthfeel with a mild amount of bitterness. Good.

Straw color with a thicker, tight bubbled, off-white head. A quick sniff reveals stomach acid and fizzy strawberry soda. Luckily the stomach stench only last a short time and you are left with scents of starburst and a hint of wheat. Fairly thin and fizzy in feel, but enough sweetness to give some sticky sensations. A pale lager with strawberry cotton candy. A mild candy strawberry flavor in the finish and the linger dries out leaving husks of grain and over-ripe berry flavors floating about waiting to be rinses out. Rinse, taste, repeat. Suave shampoo comes to mind.