The Thirsty Hopster

I never intended this blog to turn into a news feed of the macrobreweries’ press releases, but I guess I just find it more interesting and surprising when I hear that they are trying something experimental than when I hear it from craft brewers.  That is, the bar is lower for them.  I’m not sure a blueberry lager from a craft brewer would ever catch my attention, but coming from Anheuser-Busch in the form of their new Wild Blue (which is a somewhat misleading name since it’s not a wild fermented beer) it is interesting and surprising.

But the fact that I have been ’surprised’ so many times recently is making me suspect that I’m just catching up on a trend that’s already well underway and that these ‘craft-style’ beers, if they can be dignified with that name* have been around for a while and will be appearing with increasing frequency. 

*I hesitate to sneer like this given (A) I haven’t tasted these beers yet, and given (B) the recent discussion on the Appellation Beers blog which has made me think twice about writing responsibly when giving negative beer commentary.  That said, you don’t have take my word for it: the reviewers at BeerAdvocate, including the Alstrom Brothers have given Wild Blue the definitive thumbs down.  Still, I know many of the reviewers on BeerAdvocate have a distinct anti-macrobrew bias, and none of these reviews are conducted blind, so the write-ups are likely to be highly influenced by the drinkers’ preconceptions of A-B beers.  My own thoughts, as reflected in the postings over the last several days, is that there is nothing inherently wrong with a macrobrew.  I don’t care how many barrels they brew or who owns them.  However, they nonetheless tend to make bad beers due to the demands of a model that requires them to sell large quantities at low margins.  Every market has its mass-market and its niche segments and they tend to turn out very different products.  This is why I am excited by the possibility of producing quality products on a mass basis, and at mass-market prices.

However, with all that said, I’ve made a decision that each time I write one of these stories about macrobreweries, I’m also going to feature craft brewers who make a similar style of beer.  I don’t want to give the macrobrewers, who already have so many advantages, more free publicity for ideas they’ve just plagiarized from the craftbrew community. 

I’d say that by far the best known blueberry beer is Sea Dog’s Blue Paw Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale.  This isn’t a lager like the A-B version, and I haven’t had it in ages, but my intuition is that the softer wheat flavor would go well with the blueberry, like a blueberry pancake or biscuit.  Or like Popeye’s Boberry biscuits, which I don’t know if they have anymore, but I loved them and practically lived on them the summer I was writing for Let’s Go USA Travel Guide in the south.  This may have given away how bad my taste is.  As long as we’re adding fuel to that fire, I also love Red Lobster.  There it is.  I said it.   Anyway, I’m not sure how widely distributed the Sea Dog blueberry ale is, and their website is doing some crazy stuff right now so I can’t look it up.   It is a Maine brewery, so it may not be available everywhere out here, but they do have a couple wins at California brewers festivals, so my guess is that they are distributed somewhere out here.

Dogfish Head has a Blackberry & Blueberry Belgian Style Strong Ale called Black & Blue which it lists as an ‘occasional rarity’.  This sounds AWESOME.  Unfortunately, the only release date listed on their website is April 2007 and it’s unclear whether they will re-release it this year.

 Closer to home, your best bet is probably the Marin Brewing Company Blueberry Ale.  I haven’t had it yet, but I’m long overdue for a trip up to MBC, so I expect I may give it a shot this spring or summer.

There you have it, the new macrobrew going-ons, and blueberry beers of note.