This article got me thinking about fruit beers. Love ’em or hate ’em? I’ve generally found that beer drinkers have the strongest opinions on fruit beer. Done right, of course, they are simply awesome (your mileage may vary). Done wrong, well…

Some notably good fruit beers I’ve had include:

• Pyramid‘s Apricot Ale—on tap, though. The bottled version is simply average.
• Bert Grant’s Apple Honey Ale—also on tap. (This was many years ago.)
• Lindemans Framboise Lambic. Actually, all of Lindemans’ are pretty amazing.

And of course, there’s been some not-so-good ones… usually these are ones brewed by brewpubs as seasonals or special batches. I remember Bend Brewing Company once did an apricot ale I couldn’t really drink (disclaimer: I haven’t tried Bend Brewing’s Apricot Summer Ale anytime recently). Another notably bad one was a chili pepper beer brewed by the since-closed Birkebeiner Brewery in Spokane (okay, so a chili pepper is not exactly a fruit, but it’s close enough to qualify for my purposes). That one was nasty—I didn’t even order it, a couple at the next table did and gave it to me instead. I didn’t drink it, either.

Some of the best homebrewed fruit beers I’ve had were made with fruits you wouldn’t expect: banana and mango, both brewed by my friend Justin. I myself have made an apple ale (which wasn’t terrible) and an apricot ale (which wasn’t great).

So, fruit beers—yay or nay?