Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale

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

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jjpm74, thanks John!) This is in the running for the worst raspberry beer I’ve ever tasted. The flavor is all perfume, fake raspberry flavoring, and artificial sugar. Whatever wheat flavor there might be is easily overpowered. I do get a hint of vanilla in the finish, and that could be the lone bright spot in the flavor. Aroma is also all artificial raspberry and perfume, but it smells better than this beer tastes. Body is fairly light, but the finish is very watery. Unlike many berry beers, the color is a pale golden without the slightest tint toward red, pink or purple. And for a supposed wheat beer, the clarity is perfect. Really, this looks like your average premium lager, complete with the steady stream of carbonation bubbles. The white head pours small and quickly fades to a ring. Boy, just a terrible raspberry beer, and a perfect example of why I have such a prejudiced view toward this style. Most are simply not very enjoyable, but some (like this beer) are downright offensive.

This kind of tastes like its got the rasberries added to an average wheat beer as opposed to being brewed within it. It doesnt suck as much as my packers do though.

Hm, sort of an alcopopish aroma. Mostly raspberries, which is to be expected, but very little /anything/ else. Wheat? Maybe... Medium gold hue. Sparse and quickly fading foamy white head. Tastes mostly of raspberries with touches of tart wheat and honey malt. Hops are not discernable. Medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation. Overly force carbed, in fact. Meh.

Dark gold with a thin head. Nice fresh raspberry aroma, as one might expect. The raspberry flavors is slightly underplayed and the wheat flavor is evident. Seems a bit cloying, though. Decent.

Best before 11-2005 bottle consumed 9/11/2005. Pours very bubbly. Big bubbles, decent-sized white head. Golden-raspberry cider/apple-juice colored. Smells like raspberry puree, with some hints of wheat sourness/dryness. Tastes like raspberry essence. Dry wheatiness, no yeast or hops. Barely any malt. Sharp, forced, overcarbonation. Some notes of honeyish malt on the end, with some light fruit acids. Decent raspberry flavor, with little to no beer aspects aside from some honey dough. Fizzy, no complexity. Gets more bland as it warms. Filtered, which is a sad thing, to see a filtered wheat beer. Won’t have to drink this again.

Smells like raspberries (go figure). Wow, really surprised how good this brew tastes. Sweet and hoppy with a tinge of rasberry flavor. Can’t believe this is rated so low.

Pours a clear copper with almost no head; surprisingly clear for a wheat beer or for a fruit beer. Nose is simple — raspberry fruit syrup. Taste is simple too, raspberry fruit, with a lot of sweetness and a little hoppy bitterness. Not objectionable, but definitely less than the sum of its parts. Too sweet to drink with food, too uninteristing to drink by itself, and more of a kiddie taste than a beer taste.

Compared to other raspberry wheat ales this one is very strong and syrupy. Very sweet with not much bitterness. Not my figurative cup of tea. Try the abita purple haze!