Belhaven Fruit Beer (Bottle)

Brewed by Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: Bitter
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

Looks like a standard bitter, the aroma is hopped with a slight hint of raspberry. Watery raspberry flavour with little hops. Overall a very poor fruit beer, as it is hardly a fruit beer more a fruit flavoured bitter.

Pastuerised Bottle. BBE Sept 04 Dreadful. Nasty cardboard flavours. Yugh! There are fruit flavours here, but the reality is that this is such a poor quality product that it hardly seems worth the effort of identifying them. Barely drinkable.

Medium-dark amber color, small white head. Strong blackcurrant, strawberry and raspberry aroma. Malty, fruity flavor with cow scent and a bittersweet aftertaste. Now if only the body was fuller... as such it's a bit thin for my taste. Quite refreshing and unusual, anyway.

Bottled. Bronze in colour with a white head. The aroma is similar to the nasty pilsner - gooseberries, this time joined by strawberry. Gooseberry and strawberry are also evident in the flavour. This has a thin palate and lacks a fruit punch. Also has an odd vapour-dry finish. I suspect this is the pilsner base with some fruit chucked in.

Pale orange in color. This beer was a fruity boquet in its aroma, raspberries and blackbeeries. The flavor was a bit of a let down.....the bitterness that I love in Belhavens beers was overcome by a weird fruity maltiness.....not quite as pleasant as the aroma.

This is a rater failed attempt at marrying an american style (fruit beer) to scottish ale. The usual big fruity yeast induced character of the scottish ale comes through nicely but it interferes greatly with whatever fruit was supposed to be showcaesed. Hopping rates are low and are not a facter. Americans have it right in this case with a nice clean base often with a clean tartness usually from a wheat malt base.

Bottled. Amber bronze colour, thin but sustained creamy white head and moderate condition. Toffee, caramel and blackberry aromas at start with some low hops and a faint raspberry citrus tart note. Nonspecific fruitiness apparent in the mouth, with a hint of yoghurt and malt, but quite thin and borderline metallic. Dry and chalky in the finish with some lingering berry notes.

The aroma is sweet, malty, and yeasty with notes of berries. The color is dark orange and it has a fine but fast disappearing head. The flavor is sweet and dominated by a myriad of berry notes - as if it is a drinkable version of a mixed marmelade - on my tastebuds it doesn't fit that well with a beer. I detect strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries combined with very weak malt notes. There is no bitterness to balance the sweetness from the berries. This beer is more special, than it is good.