I don't like fruity beer, but....

I am going to have to stop saying that. I've had enough fruit beers in my life to finally admit that, yes, I like fruit beer. Mind you, I don't like all fruit beer. Some of it is just plain gross (cue 't Smisje Blond), but I find that quite a few of the fruit-inspired beers are more than palatable.

We stopped at Gomer's Midtown tonight to see what they had and hoped pick up some Founders. We ended up getting Founders' Dirty Bastard, New Holland's Dragon's Milk, and Samuel Smith's Organic Strawberry Ale. If you keep up with my preferences, I tend to like drier, hoppier, more astringent or citrusy beers. I don't like the cloyingly-sweet stuff, even those double-IPAs that, despite the 99+ IBUs, go down like cough syrup.

This ale poured quite well, with a giant head that took a few minutes to die down enough for me to take a picture. It's a bit spritzy, and that characteristic stays through the entire beer. As soon as I opened the beer, it smelled of strawberries. It's pretty apparent they add strawberry flavoring to the beer, but not overwhelmingly-so. This is still a beer.

The initial taste of the beer is strawberry, followed by a nice bready flavor, followed by a somewhat intense sourness. It is just like eating strawberry rhubarb pie or cobbler, in that you get the up-front sweetness & doughy flavor, but have that lingering sour/bitter flavor for a while... this is truly a great "fruit beer" and one that I think could be appreciated by beer connoisseurs and beer-snubbers alike - especially as summer nears. Bottoms up!

* Edited - Gomer's midtown has the Samuel Smith's Winter Warmer (which is fabulous) on sale for under $3 per bottle. It is one of my favorite "Christmas" beers.