SuperFuzz

Blood Orange is an interesting addition to a beer. I was afraid this beer would either be soda-poppy, or too dry to hold up to the fruit that was added to it (fruit sugars in beer tend to ferment completely out, leaving fruit essence but no fruit flavor), but I was happily impressed. The nose is definitely citrusy, hinting of orange soda or Squirt, with a nice malt balance and a piney/grapefruit skin hop. The beer is a deep orange with a creamy head. It’s cloudy, which might be from the fruit, but it doesn’t detract from the beer. There is a very complex interplay between the hop bitterness and the citrus notes. I couldn’t tell which hit me first, and I had fun trying to parse the citrus from the fruit and the citrus from the hops. It has a sharp effervescence, is very clean, and ends with a juicy orange sweetness and a resinous citrus peel-like bitterness.

In all, a fun use of fruit in beer. As a pale ale, its surprisingly dry with just enough malt backbone to support the fruit. A really nice beer that’s definitely worth trying.