Beverages: The Time Is Ripe for Fruit-Forward Beer

Just like its best-known big-screen aficionado, gin won’t stay down for the count.

By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/21/2007

America’s favorite frothy brew is going fruity. Infused with sweet, tart flavors such as raspberry, cherry and apricot, these specialty beers create an enticing niche offering for restaurant and brewpub beer lists—and attract broader audiences than you might expect.

“Back when folks in craft brewing first discovered fruit beers, a lot of people said they appealed most to women. Now I have men who come in and say, ‘Your elderberry wheat beer is the best craft-brewed beer I’ve ever tasted,’” says Eric Sorensen, a senior brewer with Louisville, Colo.-based Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, where seasonal specials have included raspberry, orange and blueberry beers.

Often described on menus with evocative phrases such as “notes of fruit and spice,” “delicate aroma” and “refreshingly sweet,” it’s no wonder fruity ales, lagers and lambics (spontaneously fermented beers from Belgium’s Pajottenland region) also prove an ideal crossover beverage for wine drinkers.

“It still tastes like beer but also a little more like wine, so sometimes we can get customers who’d normally order wine out of a category they’re more comfortable with and into our category,” Sorensen says.

Operators who don’t produce their own beer have plenty of options for purchasing fruit-flavored varieties from brewers large and small. Contemporary American restaurant Viand in Chicago buys its raspberry brew from a microbrewery in Michigan, while Belgian brasserie Markt in New York City imports lambics in flavors from cherry to currant.

Beth Rogers Kral, Markt’s general manager, attributes the beers’ popularity to their uniqueness and elegant presentation—the corked bottles are poured into tall, slender, footed glasses. On the menu, the lambics are billed as dessert beers, but their varied flavor profiles also complement main courses, Kral says. Some even find their way into recipes, such as sautéed chicken with kriek (cherry) beer sauce with Gruyère-topped potato soufflé and sugar snap peas.

At upscale restaurant Le Lan in Chicago, an apple-flavored ale the staff sampled while planning a beer dinner with a Canadian craft brewer married so well with much of the French-Asian menu that it earned a spot in the regular beverage lineup.

“The apple taste matches really well with a lot of our dishes, especially some of the spicier components and the pork recipes,” says Assistant General Manager Amy Ermatinger.