The story
People have been fermenting fruit alongside grain for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence from ancient China and the Near East suggests that some of the earliest fermented drinks combined cereals with fruit, honey and other ingredients. In more recent history, Belgian brewers made fruit lambics like kriek and framboise, but modern fruit beer has taken off largely thanks to craft brewers.
Today almost any fruit you can imagine — raspberries, peaches, mangoes, passion fruit, blueberries — can find its way into a beer. And the base beer can be anything from a light wheat ale to a rich stout.
What it tastes like
Fruit beer is a broad category, so the flavour depends on both the fruit and the base beer. A good fruit beer should taste like the fruit is part of the beer, not a flavouring added as an afterthought. A raspberry wheat beer might be light, tart and refreshing, while a cherry stout might be rich and chocolatey with dark fruit notes. Sweetness varies widely, from bone dry to dessert-like. Colour can also be affected by the fruit: raspberries and cherries lend pink and red hues.
How it’s made
Brewers can add fruit at several stages: during the boil, in the fermenter, or during conditioning. Fresh, frozen or puréed fruit is common, and some brewers use juice or concentrates. Adding fruit during or after fermentation tends to preserve fresher aromas. The fruit’s natural sugars ferment, adding alcohol and drying the beer, so brewers must plan for this. Balancing the fruit with the base beer’s malt, hops and yeast character is the true art.
Fun fact
Beer judges evaluate fruit beers on whether the fruit and the base style work in harmony. A beer that tastes only of fruit, or where you cannot detect the fruit at all, is considered out of balance. In other words: the fruit should be a partner, not a disguise.