Atlantic Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

Brewed by Atlantic Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Bar Harbor, Maine USA

Pours a surprisingly light gold with no tint of blueberry that you sometimes get in these ales. Aroma is nice fresh maine blueberries, and sweet- kinda like fresh blueberry pie. Moderalty sweet flavor with more fruit flavors balanced with a clean hop bitterness. Easy to drink and doesnt get too sweet. Can easly drink a pint of this stuff.

Solid ivory head above a shiny amber body. The nose is like smelling French toast covered with blueberries and hot maple syrup and dusted with powdered sugar and cinammon. Wow. Lush mouthfeel is nice conveyer for sugary blueberries in the body. Layering the fruit are sweet bready malts. This is really sweet throughout and with great use of the fruit. A really nice beer, but not something I could drink alot of.

A whispy, off-white head collects slowly over a medium amber-mahogany hued beer. Real blueberries--tart, with skins intact--grace the aroma. The pale and crystal malts are immediately recognizable and the Munich malt lends that characteristic ’pure malt sweetness’ to the aroma. Underscoring everything else, is a soft yet earthy and spicy hop element. Upfront, the flavor is that of a well made amber ale--caramel and malt sweetness, a touch of fruity acidity. It is not until the finish that the effect of the blueberries shines through with a punchy twang. Hops are rather covered by everything else in the flavor and impart only a subtle bitterness. The texture is quite slick and on par with what one would expect from a 5.2 abv beer. Carbonation plays its role well without ever becoming and interference. A decent beer, well played by sticking to the dryer side for a fruit beer.

Very sweet smell, faint blueberry aroma as it’s poured, very faint. A pale ale look with generous head and some activity happening, looks great. Taste at first is a bit sweet but as it warms it becomes very smooth and well balanced ale. The blueberries are not strong and only appear near the end of each sip, more as a spice than as fruit flavor.

Well, I don’t care for blueberry, so maybe this wasnt the best beer to try. As is implied, this tastes like blueberries and I got a sense that was to much carbonation in my bottle. Tasted almost soda like.

copper. small off-white head. sweet blueberry, bready malt, and just a hint of hops in aroma. light blueberry flavor and a very good shortbread tasting malt underneath. some spices. finish is a little bit metallic. creamy and mod. dry.

I picked up a bottle of this for my wife to try, but a had to sneak a taste or two... Nice brown/amber color, moderate carbonation. Blueberry and malt aroma. Tastes like blueberry and malt (more beer/malt flavor than blueberry). Light on the palate. Sweet finish with a hint of blueberry. Not quite enough blueberry for my wife. This brew mostly tastes like beer with a bit of blueberry flavoring thrown in... 12 oz bottle, $1.15 from River’s Bend. Rating: 6 3 5 3 11 = 2.8. -- UPDATE (1/07/2007): My parents visited the Atlantic Brewing Company in Bar Harbor, Maine while on vacation last year (2006) and brought me back a 12 oz bottle of this beer and three others (Atlantic Bar Harbor Real Ale, Atlantic Mount Desert Island Ginger, and Atlantic Coal Porter) ... Thanks mom and dad! -- Atlantic Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale is amber in color, clear, and has a generous amount of lively carbonation. It also has a large, foamy, ivory head that falls moderately quickly. The aroma is a malt and a reserved blueberry (it’s fairly subtle). A well balanced subtle blueberry flavor compliments the moderately sweet caramel and maltiness. The finish yields more roastiness accompanied by some citrus hop bitterness. This beer has a medium body and feels good on the palate. I am more pleased with this beer the second time around (maybe it’s a fresher bottle) and have elevated my original rating slightly. My wife thinks that it still needs more blueberry, but I’m happy with it as is and after all, I’m the one rating it! Rating: 6 3 7 3 13 = 3.2.

Any first impressions?
-The compact, thick head looks nitroed before dissipating to a ring over the deep orange.
-A hint of perfumy blueberries rests under the malty caramel aroma.
-Blueberry fruitiness and pils maltiness show up discreetly at first, but reaffirm their dominance after a few gulps.
-The puffy mouthfeel (again, was this lightly nitroed?) remains creamy all along, showcasing some well-extracted maltiness.

What if you dig deeper?
-Feathery tartness from the fruit lurks under the maltiness of a bitter.
-It finishes extremely smoothly with some fading fruitiness.
-Once the head has collapsed, the fruity aroma becomes more defined.
-This is a decent fruit ale for those who don’t just want fruit.

On tap in Bar Harbor.