The holidays and a late Friday start precluded me from making my beer purchase in a timely manner this week. Early afternoon Saturday, a Trojan worm horse polymorphic virus bit into my brain’s frontal lobe and I spoke up to my wife, “Would you like to help me select a beer for tonight’s review?” It was just at that very instant, that infinitesimal unit of time when my frontal lobe kicked backed in. Are you sure of what you just said? “Okay,” she answered. Damn! You can’t go back on yourself now. You must do it. Hmm. It just may turn out to be interesting and fun including the review. Soon, we were belted in our seats and making our way to the highly acclaimed, world renowned Morris Beer Store.

We walked in and were welcomed like relatives arriving for a ceremonial dinner. Gail, the Beer Maven, was absent, but somehow the young, cute blonde lass was fully aware of at least who I was and offered her assistance at picking out something for review. Gesturing behind my wife’s back, I thanked the young lady and told her we’d call if we needed help.

We began perusing the craft beer shelf. Wife mentioned that there sure are a lot of selections, then said that I’d tried quite few of them. She gravitated towards a blue tinted sixpack on the top shelf. “Oh, look. Blueberry beer. And here’s apricot.” I think I harrumphed or something. I mentioned that I felt like having maybe a wheat beer. Or a lager. I had ales the last few weekends. I wandered off.

“Frank, what about this one?” She’s pointing at another blueberry beer. She took a bottle out of the sixpack and checked the price. Nope. Almost ten bucks. Back to the original blueberry beer. The wife of my life then said, “Ya know, you can’t just try what you like. You gotta diversify. You gotta try some of the fruity stuff once in a while.” Well… (At this point, this is what guys do. They somehow melt into a pile of slag when their lady is involved. After 30+ years of marriage, I was again, putty in her hands.)

The price was not bad, ($7.99) but what got me was the announcement on the sixpack container: “North American Brewer’s Association Gold Medal.” That, in itself, helped me help myself to choose this beer. We picked Wild Blue Blueberry Lager from Wild Dawg Brewing out of Baldwinsville, NY.

Back at home, with the beer chilling in the fridge, I started a little googling. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. It seems that the Wild Dawg Brewery is merely a team at the Anheuser Busch Brewery. The gold medal for the beer was won in 2006. I grabbed this text:

“When we saw adults lined up to taste our blueberry lager at the Brewers Heritage Festival, even if it meant waiting five or 10 minutes to fill their glasses, we knew this was the perfect place to bring this beer next,” said Jeff Pierson, innovation manager, Wild Blue.

“St. Louisans know good beer, and we hope they’re as excited as we are to have our great-tasting blueberry beer available for taking to parties and enjoying with friends.”

If you’re interested, the entire article is here.

Interestingly, the bottle label claims it to be a “Blueberry Lager.” The side of the same label says it’s a “Flavored Ale.” So which is it? Different fermentation processes here, guys. You getting marketing tips from Microsoft?

Seven hours in the fridge is enough, don’t you think? Whatever. It was finally time to have some fruit beer.

As soon as I popped the cap, I smelled the scent of blueberry. I wonder how this is going to go over. When I poured it into the glass the blueberry aroma wafted all over the confines of my computer desk. At first I thought that I was pouring wine or grape juice, but the foam head told me that it just might be beer. The head had a very pink tint to it and the liquid was a very dark maroon, kind of purplish red purple. The head dissipated quickly (as is the case with fruit beers) but there were an ample supply of medium sized bubbles coming up.

The first sip was very sweet, almost like a juice but there was a whang to it at the last part of the swallow. It wasn’t unpleasant during this first tasting, but I can see how the sweetness would tend to tire out one’s tongue after about two of these beers. This beer doesn’t really taste like beer, nor does it taste like wine. The sweet blueberry taste is first, foremost and like a spoiled rotten kid who’s always demanding attention, comes in with a grand flourish and demands your ears the entire time. It does leave a nice lacing on the side of the glass, though.

With an 8% ABV, this beer has the potential of getting one into real trouble. The beer goes down rather easy and will make you want another. One could consider this a very dangerous lawnmower beer. A few of these coolers and you may not get out of your chaise lounge chair out on the patio. This beer could also bring your evening to an abrupt end sooner than you expect.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad beer tasting experience. I must admit though, that it was different. An alcoholic beverage that’s neither beer nor wine; sort of like an Anheuser Busch hermaphrodite beverage in a brown bottle. I think it’s still worth a try, just to experience this unique flavor. However, if you do buy a sixer, the remaining two or three bottles could gather dust in your fridge.

Now how do I rate this beer? It’s a beer that tastes like a juicebox, for crysakes! As a man who likes good tasting, malty, wheaty, robust beer, how do I classify this beer? We’ll just have to see what I can come up with. Hmm.

The SixPackTech ratings for Wild Blue Blueberry Lager are:

Taste: S > For the sweetness. Predominant throughout.
Smoothness: J > For juice, which it most nearly resembles.
Drinkability: E/O > Either/Or. You’ll drink just one; or you’ll drink them all.
Bang for the buck: ~ > Tilde. Too expensive for beer; cheap enough to be wine.
ABV: 8%
Wife’s all-encompassing opinion: Oooh, kinda reddish. (sip) Mmmm! REAL blueberryish! Didn’t expect that much. (sip) I kinda like this. Fruity beer. (sip) MMM, yeah. That’s good. Save me one for when I’m off work. (Definitely a chick drink that has some possibilities, eh?)