Lost Coast Brewery down in Eureka, California, brews a couple of fruit beers, and Tangerine Wheat is (I think) the newer of the two. This a light, summery American wheat ale brewed “with natural flavor added.” I’m not exactly sure what “natural flavor” refers to, but if I didn’t know better I would guess that they added plenty of actual (possibly whole) fruit to this beer.

Tangerine Wheat makes for a nice light summer beer (especially on a hot day), and it’s perfectly sessionable at 5% ABV.

Appearance: Hazy golden color with white head that started smooth and got choppy.

Smell: Bright tangerine—citrusy and zesty like freshly-zested peel. Juicy with sweet fruit and a touch of bitter peel.

Taste: On the tongue there’s more of that bitter, pithy peel flavor than fruit itself. Light, sweet fruit comes out though at the back of the mouth and as it warms; nice orange/tangerine notes (though still has bitter peel overlaying those).

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, effervescent and I want to say a touch oily as citrus peel can be. A bit dry in the finish, too.

Overall: Light and refreshing, a bit different as far as fruit goes—it’s like they use lots of peel (whole fruit maybe?) in the brewing.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.94 out of 5 and is in their 44th overall percentile (74th for the style).