Empyrean Brewing Co. - "Pitched Blue" ale

The B-side of the back-to-back Empyrean Brewing Co. posts is their "Pitched Blue", a light 5.40% ABV  ale made with fresh blueberry juice. Made with Galena hops, it has Munich and Honey malts, flaked barley, it clocks in at a rock-bottom 15 IBUs.

Fruit is nothing new in beer, but I do not believe I have ever had a beer made with blueberries. Relatedly, I think the only berry ale of this sort that I've tried was an underwhelming "Blackbeary Wheat" from Long Trail. But that was years ago, and needless to say - happy to give berries another shot.

It pours quickly and generates a super thick layer of slightly-purplish foam. There's an intense aroma of blueberry, which is a good sign. The beer is root-beer colored, some brown ale coloring when candled.
 

Taste-wise, it's most impressive. There's solid blueberry flavors right as the beer hits your tongue. It's the consistency of juice, not thin or attenuated like the "Blackbeary Wheat", and has nice accompanying notes of sugar and some soft porter-like notes. Not a lot of carbonation here, and the foam sticks with the beer and adds a nice touch. Finish is soft and leaves a lingering note of blueberry.

Generally, quite nice as fruit beers go. The biggest concern I had going into this was two-fold - one, that it would be too thin and vaguely blueberry-flavored (as opposed to an actual blueberry beer) and two, that it would be very sweet and sugary and would perhaps taste artificial. Neither of these things happened. This beer presented a good mix of flavors, and a really solid showing by the blueberry which is all I could ask for. Definitely one to try, and anyone interested in a blueberry beer would be hard-pressed to find anything better.