Sea Dog Blue Paw Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale

Brewed by Sea Dog Brewing (Shipyard Brewing Co.)
Style: Fruit Beer
Topsham, Maine USA

Bottle. Pours gold with white head. Smell of blueberry. Taste like a nicely done blueberry flavored beer. I for one enjoyed this dog.

One needs to go into this beer thinking they will experience exactly what it really is. With that expectation, one will really find the drink to be quite pleasing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this beer, it is good right of the top with a very prominent blueberry aroma that is refreshing. The beer is highly dominated by blueberry flavor, with just a hint of bitterness to mellow things out. It’s balanced and clean if it were not for blueberry whacking you right in the face. If you want blueberry, then you will get it with this beer. Nothing else really, nothing cloying, nothing beery, nothing hoppy...just blueberry. Now if this were not beer, I would say that is a good thing. This beverage happens to be quite pleasing, its like standing in a blueberry patch on a warm summer day watching the birds nip the bright blue orbs of lucious juice from the bushes as they crap on your head, you suddenly realize how hot it really is, and you’d rather be in the nice cool air conditioning or scoring a birdie on the golf course instead of a darn blueberry patch. Why the heck are you standing in a blueberry patch anyway?

Draft. Cloudy, light gold body. Fizzy whhite head. Aroma of grain and dough, but mostly blueberry. The flavor is moderately sweet followed by a lightly bitter, moderately sweet finish. All that is overshadowed by the taste of blueberries. Light to medium body with an overly fizzy carbonation. This beer tastes like you are drinking a blueberry soda pop. Not very good.

Fruit and beer as a combination was at one point one of my more difficult beer prejudices to overcome. "Beer and fruit?! That isn’t beer! That’s sissy beer! I only drink real beer!" Well, those prejudices thankfully have been overcome through time, acceptance, an open-mind, and most importantly, education. Education both in knowing what I was tasting and knowing if what I was tasting was a good and balanced fruit beer. This brings me to the Blue Paw from Sea Dog brewing. Out of all the fruit beers Sea Dog brews, this is probably their best.
My Blue Paw was on draft and came to me practically overflowing. Orange and amber in color, a bit of wheat haze is visible, but compared to some wheat beers it is rather clear. Her head fades into a thin ring around the glass, making way for rich, fruity sweet blueberry notes to seek out my nose. I am reminded of blueberry pie with the richness of the blueberries and the softness of the wheat in the nose and body. A quaff, then another. Bright, smooth and creamy. A sweet palate, but not sickly sweet. The wheat does a decent job of balancing out the sweet nature of the blueberries, creating that blueberry pie effect I smelled in her nose. A hint of vanilla tickles my tastebuds later in my brew, especially after she has had some time to embrace room temperature. A light to medium body with no lingering aftertaste of either blueberries or wheat. Very clean; maybe too clean as I wouldn’t mind a light hint of berries to linger and tease.
Overall, a decent fruit beer. I find that Sea Dog manages to balance the blueberry and the wheat very well for a balanced sweet fruit beer. It just doesn’t overwhelm, which would be its major drawback. It’s good, but it doesn’t grab me by my tastebuds and my throat and scream for my attention. good, but also easily forgettable.

Just about what you would expect. Sweet blueberry notes right off the bat. Smooth malty light wheat backbone. Quaffable but not very interesting - very thin and carbonated.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured an amber color with a large yellow-white head. The aroma was strong blueberry with a hint of light malts underneath. THe flavor was exceptionally tart, bitter and tangy with a vague berry note. The finish was short and very tart. Interesting.

Tried this at Mellow Mushroom with friends. One guy really liked it. Yellow. White, yet weak head. I loved the blueberry aroma, but unfortunately, it didn’t linger much. Kinda thin and overall, not extremely impressive. Was fun to try however.

This amber ale poured with a thick off-white head and a blueberry aroma. There is also a distinct blueberry taste over a modest caramel malt base. This is a refreshing brew, but not particularly tasty.