I generally don’t like fruit beers.
Or, before the pedants jump on me, beers with fruit in them.
But Saltaire’s Raspberry Blonde is single handedly changing my mind.
This is a lovely Pale Ale with lots of shortcake biscuit and bitter sweet burned caramel.
There’s spicy heather honey too that provides a good backbone to the sharp citrus tinged nettle sting of the hops that are loaded with bracken and elderflower.
Floating over all this is a beautifully subtle raspberry parfait, sharp and sugary, ripe and juicy, it gets everywhere.
There’s raspberries in the smell, just poking up over the straw and toffee, and in the finish there’s a luscious raspberry coulis that lends a gentle fruity softness to the crisp clean finish.
I like this beer a lot.