Abita Purple Haze

Brewed by Abita Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Covington, Louisiana USA

Cloudy amber pour with reddish hues. Thick white head and minimal lace. Grainy aroma. Cough syrup flavor

Bottle. Good beer. Poured a hazy gold color with a thin head. Aroma and flavor are of rasperries. Neither are over the top. A little thin for the style, but a good brew.

Up until rather recently, the only Purple Haze I knew of involved Jimi Hendrix, tie-dye, velvet posters, and black lights. While some of us may not want to revisit those days and some of us may not remember much of them, Purple Haze from Abita Brewing out of Louisiana is a different story all together. I’ll gladly go back and revisit Abita’s Purple Haze any day, in moderation of course.
Much like her name, Purple Haze comes in a rather purple splattered 6 pack case with a funkadelic purple label. But, what’s in a label doesn’t necessarily denote a good (or bad) product inside. Thankfully, Purple Haze neither induces neither a lucid or catatonic state, but instead bursts with flavor and life.
She pours a hazy orange into my hefeweizen glass, making Purple Haze an unfiltered wheat beer. And not just any wheat beer, a raspberry wheat beer with a thin puffy head that releases soft wheat notes and hints of raspberry in the nose. A rather full body which still manages to maintain a refreshingly light and wheat beer profile. A hint of tart raspberry in the back of the palate. A bit of tartness and a light crisp effervescence compliments the soft palate I feel as I drink my Purple Haze goodbye. If I’m not careful, she’ll disappear without me noticing and then I will wonder if something funky is going on...as she warms, no real changes in the overall soft, full, lightly sweet character and tart raspberry bite. A fine flavored wheat beer from a solidly performing craft brewery. I’ve had a few flavored wheat beers over the last year or so, and I really have enjoyed Purple Haze.

Hazy golden pour with a good medium head that stayed a while. Aroma of wheat and lightly toasted malt, with a hint of berries. Flavor is grain and malt, with the sweet-sour berries in the background. Definitely better than many fruit beers, which I find to be overly sweet. The light berry flavor actually improves this brew, rather than detracts from it.

great wheat beer, smell of raspberrys is not overwhelming, nor is the flavor. It is slightly sweet, but not too much. Nice summer beer

Gold cloudy pour with a decent head. Aromas of raspberry and wheat malt. Flavor is light with notes of raspberry seltzer and cereal grains. Light and unobtrusive.

This smelled and looked really good. Cloudy, rasberry’s and yeast....but this dissapointed it’s too sweet which I thought with the rasberry’s being fresh and not artificial it would be sour and not sweet, but it was and it masks what may be a good wheat underneath.

12 oz. bottle courtesy of another friend at a tasting. Several fruit beers, eh? This bad boy looked really good on pour, cloudy muted gold color with a decent head that unfortunately dissipates quickly. Lighter raspberry aromas that are light upon taste and mour sour than sweet (Always a plus). Some wheaty malt characteristics that are very enjoyable. More refreshing and lighter bodied than the other offering I had, but less taste and character. A decent fruit beer that I’d drink again.