Black Bear Blueberry Ale

Brewed by Bear Brew Pub (Black Bear Brewery)
Style: Fruit Beer
Orono, Maine USA

Growler. The blueberry must be an extract because there’s no hint of blueberry color, maybe a seasonal offering can be made with fresh blueberries? That said, it tastes great. There’s a great spiciness from the hops that you get right on the front of the tongue. A ’tasty american wheat with blueberry flavor’ is how I would describe it. Blueberry dominates the aroma and balances the hops and wheat in the flavor. Yay beer!

8/09/2008: Black Bear Blueberry Ale is clear with a dirty blonde color and an off-white frothy crown. The aroma is sweet, fruity, and floral like blueberry syrup. A good level of fruity and floral nearly-real blueberry comes through in the front and back of the beer although it drops off rapidly in the aftertaste. The middle has a subtle Pale Ale quality to it. There is a mild floral hoppiness in the finish as well that seems to get more prominent which each sip. This beer has a medium-light body and is crisp and clean on the palate. Overall this is a decent Blueberry Ale, but seems a bit more fake than the other one I had earlier today (Bar Harbor True Blue Blueberry Ale). Also, I like the maltiness of the other more as well. This one has more of a Pale Ale base beer to it which is pretty good to but doesn’t seem to work quite as well as the sweet toasted caramel maltiness of the other... My wife puts this one at 2.9 due to the more obvious hop presence and bitterness. I put at 3.0 because the floral qualities of the blueberries pairs well with the floral hoppiness, but I would still welcome a bit more maltiness.

1 Pint 6 fl oz. bottle ($4.30) from Treats in Wiscasset, Maine. Rating #8 for this beer...

Bottle. Pours a light amber with a one finger off-white head. Aroma of light blueberry, and some citrus. Flavor is blueberry sweetness with pale malts, light hops and has a light bitterness

Sampled at brewpub in Orono. A nice fruit beer and very refreshing during the summer. One or two would be about the maximum on this drink but still very nice and good with their calamari.

Bottle... Aroma:spicy and blueberry,light infected aroma.. Appearance:clear gold,mega huge head.... Flavor:blueberry,spicy,watery and light infected flavor...

Any first impressions?
-Lofty foam slowly collapses onto the hazy blond.
-The sweet blueberry perfume is ably balanced to crisp straw and citrusy, wooden hoppiness.
-The delicate blueberry sweetness is overcome by the muscular herbal hop flavor and bitterness.
-The frothy carbonation overdoes it off the bat, making most of the malt’s efforts obsolete.

What if you dig deeper?
-Biscuity maltiness sneaks through the nose, along with peachy fruitiness.
-The carbonation relaxes a bit after letting the beer breathe in the pint glass, and merely becomes an effervescent companion to other fitting components.
-After a few sips, you could forget the blueberries altogether, the herbal hops and straw-like maltiness take over.
-This is obviously their Pail Ale with a subtle dose of blueberry juice, and is another decent quaffer from Bear Brew.

Bottle; no date.

Aroma is of authentic blueberry sweetness with citrusy, hoppy background. Flavor is thin overall with hops subduing the full blueberry flavor. By the end of the bottle the hop twang is dominant. I do like the flavor combination but Id rather the blueberry flavor be stronger. The beer isnt bad despite it being slightly watery, but compared to some other blueberry beers, its not spectacular

Pours a golden orange with a thin bubbly head. Smells like blueberries and malt. It’s a mild blueberry flavor yes, but all the Maine brewers use a Pale ale as the base for their blueberry beers except for one. The brown ale base of Maine Coast’s Blueberry makes it much better tasting as this just ends up being a crisp artificial flavor tasting beer.