My Vue Weekly column, which ran last week in the Hot Summer Guide (plus you can read here), was a profile of some summer-y fruit beer. As I have said before, I am generally not a big fruit beer fan, as they in general a bit too one-dimensional for me. However, I can fully appreciate the appeal of fruit beer for the average drinker. For many, the addition of fruit perks up the beer, giving it some unusual yet familiar flavours to focus on.

The good sign is that we are starting to see brewers take the art of fruit beer more seriously. We have long had a few examples of innovative fruit beer (Cannery Blackberry Porter comes to mind), but in the past couple of years the number of fruit beer I feel compelled to try has jumped.

In the column, I highlight three (3 and 1/2 actually). I chose them largely because all use fruit not normally added to beer. The first is Alley Kat’s Summer Squeeze, with grapefruit. The highlight of this beer is its massive sweet grapefruit aroma. It really is something else and is worth a pint just to experience the aroma. (The 1/2 was a quick nod to the Mountain Dewiness of Steigl Radler).

I turned to Big Rock’s Purple Gas next, which might surprise some. However, I tip my hat to them for trying to brew with saskatoon berries. Anyone who has eaten them (or made a saskatoon pie) will know they are intense little guys. It seems quintessentially prairie to try to make a beer with them. The addtion of agave syrup I think helps bolster the base beer a touch. Plus a point for a cool, prairie-esque name.

Finally I looked at Howe Sound Four-Way Fruit Ale. Four fruits, three of whom are rarely found in the same sentence as the word beer: mango, passionfruit, raspberry and pomegranate. None of the fruit stands out on its own – I can’t really identify a noted flavour of any of them. But that might be what makes the beer kind of interesting. It is the fusion of the four flavours that creates something rather unique.

To be frank, none of these beer has “won me over” to fruit beer. But all did have me sipping with some degree of interest, which is likely to be considered a victory for them. And for those who are more inclined to fruit beer, they may offer some unique options for your summer drinking.