BJCP 2021 / 29C
Specialty Fruit Beer
A balanced mix of fruit, added sugar and beer that tastes like beer.
- Drink fresh
- specialty beer
- fruit
Serve: 40 to 50F, Tulip or pint
The BJCP gives no numbers. Any Fruit Beer style (29A, 29B or 29D) can serve as the base.
Taste it in order
Aroma
12 pts- Fruit aroma as in a Fruit Beer
- Added sugars such as honey or molasses
- All of it blended with the beer
- Vague
- Fruity
- Better
- Fruit with a sweet note
- Best
- Moderate strawberry aroma with a trace of honey and vanilla, blended into the base beer
Appearance
3 pts- Same as Fruit Beer
- Color from fruit and sugars
- Clear to lightly hazy
- Vague
- Pink
- Better
- Tinted and bright
- Best
- Color picked up from the fruit, bright, head carrying a faint tint
Flavor
20 pts- Fruit flavor as in a Fruit Beer
- Added sugars should taste cooked in
- Finish fuller or thinner depending on the sugar
- Vague
- Sweet fruit
- Better
- Fruit with added sugar
- Best
- Clear fruit with a balanced honey or lactose note, fully fermented in character, finish matches the sugar chosen
Mouthfeel
5 pts- Follows Fruit Beer
- Unfermentable sugar adds body
- Fermentable sugar thins it
- Vague
- Full
- Better
- Rounded body
- Best
- Body shaped by the sugar: fuller with lactose, lighter with simple sugars
Overall Impression
10 ptsLifts it
- Sugar that supports the fruit
Drops it
- Raw sugar taste
- Cloying sweetness
Writing tip
Say what the sugar adds. Example: 'Strawberry with soft vanilla and lactose body. Sweet but not syrupy.'
Pour these
- Strawberry Milkshake IPATired HandsLactose, fruit and hops
- Piña Colada IPAWeldWerksTropical fruit with coconut sweetness
Often confused with
- 29A Fruit BeerFruit Beer has no added sugars
- 31B Alternative Sugar BeerAlternative Sugar Beer is not defined by fruit
Fine here
- Estery: Fruit esters fit
Ruinous here
- Phenolic: Chemical flavor
- Oxidized: Stale
- Yeasty: Unfermented sugar and yeast bite
Style names, numbers and vital statistics follow the BJCP 2021 beer guidelines. Descriptions and example choices are our own. Check a beer is still made before you hunt for it.