Atlantic Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

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

Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale, is the Atlantic Brewing Company’s most popular product, and it is a beer you could not have found outside of Maine until recently. ABC has expanded into other East Coast markets and their beers are welcome to anyone who loves great craft beer. The Blueberry Ale has a big following in Maine, and can be found both on draught, and in bottles, in a number of supermarkets, beer stores, beer bars, and restaurants. It is a tradition of mine to make the very first pint of beer I drink, at one of my favorite beer bars called The Great Lost Bear, a pint of Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale. It is a ritual I have performed for the last 14 years, and every time I drink this beer, it is like the first. I fell in love with this beer at first sip. Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale pours to a beautiful, bright, deep amber color, with a thick white head, and a good bit of carbonation. The nose on this beer is wonderful, and invites you in to take a sip. Sweet, and fragrant aromas of wild blueberries, marry with aromas of sweet malt, and slight citric hop aroma. The palate is firm, with lots of good biscuit, pale, tart wheat malt, and sweet malt flavors. This is coupled with a nice back drop of sweet/slightly sour fresh blueberry flavors. Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale finishes with some good malt flavors up front, then ends with a sweet and sour blueberry finish that slightly lingers. This is a fantastic beer that showcases wild Maine blueberry flavors and aromas from start to finish. It is delicious, and refreshing. Blueberry is the star in this beer, but this beer also has some great malt character as well. And this is the true beauty of this beer. It is not at all cloying, or too sweet and fruity. You know you are drinking a beer, not a sweet blueberry soda, a mistake some brewpubs/breweries make when doing a blueberry ale. The experience is akin to chewing on fresh wild Maine blueberries while drinking a very well done pale ale. The use of blueberry, malt, and hops in this beer is sublime, each play off each other, and are in perfect harmony. Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale is without a doubt the most impressive Blueberry Ale I have ever tasted. This beer is a natural with desert, and would go well with a nice big slice of warm wild Maine blueberry pie with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Surprisingly pretty pour, with a medium, transparent brown color with a nice hint of ruby; small, white, creamy head. Aroma is nondescriptly fruity; I never would have guessed blueberry if I didn’t already know; a hint of breadiness. Flavor offers the same fruitiness; sweet but not at all cloying; the fruit flavor tapers off quickly into a lightly wheaty but flat and slightly hoppy finish. Medium body; very clean for the level of sweetness; not sticky. A nice fruit beer; pleasant; easy to drink; hard to discern the blueberries as the fruit; I might have guessed apricot if I didn’t know better; as fruit beers go, this is one of the best I’ve had.

I needs to be sweeter. Blueberries and bitter did not work. I have had sweeter versions of the style and I would have to say that the bitter here distracted from the fruit... Blueberries? Then tast like blueberries not a bitter green fruit from the vine.

12oz bottle courtesy of JoshuaH. Pours a red amber color with a small off white head. Nose is caramel and malt straight up. A decent fullness on the body, notes of malt, caramel and hints of fruit mixed in. Finishes with a harshness that is unexpected.

This one is for you Josh. Dark amber red, rather translucent. Foamy white head. Nose is sweet caramel malt and fruits. Taste is smooth and crisp. A decent malt profile is mixed with a non cloying and not too sweet blueberry flavor. Not bad.

From Bottle

Poured copper, 1/2 inch white bubbly head. Aroma of Blueberries, malts, and slight hops. Carbonation good. Flavor very sour, and hoppy. Fruity in the aftertaste. Little bit of alcohol warming, nothing overpowering. Medium mouthful. Bitter in the middle of the brew as it warmed. End of the brew was surprisingly smooth and crisp, the hop bitterness seemed to just disappear and more of the blueberry flavor came out. Overall, I wouldn’t get this again. But I was curious about this "Blueberry Ale." I didn’t like this brew. I actually thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it, intil I decided to give it one more try and I noticed the overpowering bitterness was gone as the brew warmed. Although I have had better fruit beers.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with goldtwins, thanks Larry!) I’ve only had a few blueberry beers, but they all featured a fairly "real" blueberry flavor up front and center. This beer is dominated by some sort of vague, sweet "blueberryish" flavor that tastes perfumy, plasticy and artificial, especially in the finish. Did they add NutraSweet to this? And the finish is just loaded with diacetyl too, and that puts the final nail in the coffin. The nose is less berry-centric, but still very perfumy. Body is light and carbonation is moderate. Medium amber in color with only a slight bit of haziness. The off-white head is standard across the board, rising to over half an inch, settling to a ring and leaving some patchy lacing on the glass. Wow, I really don’t like this beer, and this is my second attempt with it. There will not be a third.

it is sweet a bit watery tases pretty much like that fruit20 but only beer. strange and almost too carbonated but who knows it could be great if i didnt buy it after going stale