Cranberry Beers? Your thoughts?

cranbic was awesome, i have the whole fruit run of ng waiting to be opened soon. only opened the wisc. belgian red and it was delicious. super sweet, but so good.

 

I think Cranbic is my dad's favorite of the Thumbprints he's tried. Cannot wait until he tries Wild Peach.

 

New Glarus Cran-bic is fantastic

 

not a big fan of fruit beers but i thought Rodenbach character rogue was really good.

 

I thought Harpoon's cranberry ale they put out around Thanksgiving was alright, the base beer was the standard light Amber ale you'd expect them to produce a lot of but the cranberry flavor definitely came though and seemed to favor the bitter side of the flavor profile vs being overly sweet. I also tried Leinenkugel's cranberry shandy which captured the flavors they claimed along with fruit loops like most everything else they make

Other than those I haven't tried anything else. I would be interested in trying a "serious" beer made with cranberries, maybe a stout? Raspberry stouts are great so maybe cranberry would work. I can see it working as a Gose or lambic maybe too, or a wild ale.

 

Here's one I picked up on a recent visit to Idaho - yet to sample...

MOSH PIT from No-Li Brewhouse in Spokane WA.

Brewery description:

A base of the choicest Northwest two-row pale malt is fermented with loads of cranberry and cherry purees from Oregon Fruit Products. This hand-crafted fruit beer contains no flavorings, artificial colors or preservatives; only the highest quality fruit, malt and hops sourced from the Pacific Northwest. This tart fruit beer is a mosh pit of sweet and tart, keeping your taste buds coming back for more.

7.5% ABV, 15 IBUs

Malt: 2-Row
Hops: Cluster, Cascade
Other: Cranberry & Cherry Purees

 

Please drink some OSC juices and bring all your friends - I have ten years until I can afford to retire!

I think you are right about how to best utilize the flavor in the beer (supporting cast vs headlining), but I think it would get completely buried as a fruit flavor in a bourbon barrel aged brew. It's a difficult fruit to capture the "essence" of - the "flavor" is more of an amalgamation of sensations rather than anything that screams cranberry. The fruit lacks sugar, is loaded with acidity, and has a ton of phenolic compounds. I can pick it out of damn near anything, but I work with it every day. I get a kick out of "cranberry scented" candles and what have you - they generally don't smell anything like cranberries.

But it depends on the goal. Should the beer feature the fruit or should the fruit compliment the beer? Mystic Three Cranes - pretty subtle and that is fermented with fresh fruit, very "bright" and very much a saison with just the suggestion of cranberry. Mr. @JackHorzempa BPA - much more of a melded, mellow flavor where the cranberry accented the beer - very rounded, nice acidity in a complimentary role. Jack's Abby sour aged on cranberries - full slap in the face cranberry that tasted like a no sugar added diluted cranberry spritzer, and I found it additive. There's validity in any approach, of course, just depends on the goal and taste is up to the drinker.

From my perspective, admittedly biased, I will try damn near anything with a little cran in it. A lot comes down to how the fruit is handled in the process. When cranberries or cranberry juice ferments by itself, the results are usually train-wreck bad, so direct fermentation doesn't seem the way to go. You get weird things like styrene flavors, for example. It would be interesting to see whether yeast strains could be cultivated that produce a more pleasant result. But we spend most of our time worried about preventing fermentation... I've done some (unauthorized) experiments with added sugars, then fermenting with red wine yeast followed by distilling and stumbled on something that produced a fantastic 80% alcohol distillate. The "wine" part tasted like crap (and looked even worse) after a day or two in the bottle.

 

Only one I've liked so far was NG Cranbic

 

Meantime does a cranberry stout which I've really enjoyed.

 

If the fruit is added as part of the brewing process (added to the boil for instance) then In my opinion it is a beer. If the fruit is added to a base beer after the brewing process then it is no more than a beer cocktail or shandy and should not be considered a beer. (Bud lite-ritas)

 

Sassamanash from Rivertowne. Low abv and tastes like Capri Sun, with a terrible smell. It's confusing and intriguing.

 

Can't wait to try this!

 

The best one's I have had have been from @deGardebrewing

So Cantillon Kriek shouldn't be called a beer or are you including fermentation (specifically a 2nd fermentation started by the introduction of fruit sugars) in the brewing process?

Asking because they take a base beer (lambic) and throw fruit in it.

 

Cran Bic was outstanding.