Bar Harbor True Blue Blueberry Ale

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

Bottle. Cloudy amber coloured with a medium sized off white ehad. Sweet aroma of caramel, blueberries, spices and tea. Sweet flavour of caramel, blueberries, tea and hops. Finish of hops and berries.

(22oz bottle) Medium off-white head atop hazy violet-copper body. Aroma is medium sweet, blueberry, light bread. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, some blueberry. Light-medium body. Ho-hum.

Any first impressions?
-A veil of foam is set over the hazy reddish-brown.
-A sweet, authentic blueberry aroma definitely announces what this is supposed to be.
-Dusty yeast overcomes the light blueberry sweetness, and the Lighthouse Ale base is obvious.
-The fizzy carbonation and the dry, yeasty residue don’t exact fit together, becoming almost astringent at times.

What if you dig deeper?
-It finishes dirty and boring, with not enough blueberries and just too much yeast influence.
-I have to say I’m quite bored by almost all their beers being based on the Lighthouse Ale recipe. At least the Cadillac Mountain Stout is different (and much more interesting to my tastes).
-No complexity is offered, and there is barely enough simple enjoyment to make this a passable fruit beer.

Bottle; no date.

Pours copper with a thin white head. Smells of blueberries and tarte. Tastes tarte and sweet with some caramelly notes on the finish.

Bottle from Vintage Cellar as Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale. Strong blueberry aroma as it’s poured. Copper color with a decent white head. Near medium body with near creamy carbonation. Flavor is lightly bitter blueberry with a little caramel. Finishes rather dry and clean with a berry skin aspect. Interesting.

Called Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale. The body is light copper with a yellowish khaki head. The aroma is massive blueberry pancakes. There is also a little bit of a floral note, but it’s mostly about the blueberries. Nasty fake blueberry candy is the main flavor here with some bitter plastic notes. There is also some burnt match sticks. Not good at all. This is the type of beer that makes people dislike fruit beers.

2006 bomber consumed on 8/20/06.
Deep blueberry juice colored body shows dark amber, magenta and violet hues. Bottle conditioned, dirty-beige head is initially large and fluffy, but settles out, steadily, to a precarious cover, with patches of lace left everywhere on the glass. Clarity is medium-high.
You can just read MartinT’s review if you want my thoughts on the flavor/aroma, as they are exactly the same.
I don’t know exactly what contributes to the overly dirty/dusty, heavily blanding yeastiness in their beers. Sure, they are "unfiltered" but rarely do I get this dirty a yeast from a beer on lees. I dont think they let their beer sit on the yeast too long, so it’s probably not autolysis/trub-uptake (plus this bottle is very fresh). It could be very high fermentation temps creating this huge yeasty flavor? Their beers are immensely attenuated. Or, it could just be the yeast character. It also could be that they need to introduce fresh yeast in to their brewery. Whatever it is, it nearly dominates their already very dry, delicate, low gravity beers (ginger, peach, lighthouse).

Bottle. This was a gusher - lost half of the bottle on the kitchen counter. What’s left is amber with only spotty foam for a head. Aroma is fruity but not discernible as blueberry. Smells more like and artificial fruit flavoring in a kids cereal. Taste is slightly tart and fruity with soft grains and hops. Rather bland with some tart fruitiness being the bulk of the flavor. Body is light-medium and still decently carbonated. Ends with more tart fruit flavors, some hops and grains.