Beer Review – Purple Haze

• Name: Purple Haze
• Brewery: Abita Brewing Co.
• Style: Fruit Beer
• Origin: Louisiana
• ABV: 4.2%

After trying, and thoroughly enjoying, Abita’s wonderful Strawberry Lager, I knew I would need to try more of their beer. The Strawberry Lager was a truly remarkable balance of fruit flavors with a solid lager style beer. I had entered that review full of skepticism and left with a newfound respect for fruit beer.

On viewing Abita’s list of beers, a handful excited me. One of those was their perennial Purple Haze. Billed as a raspberry infused lager that pairs well with desserts, I was intrigued and knew I would have to try it. I hoped that Purple Haze the beer would be as great as Jimmy Hendrix’ classic.

Aptly named Purple Haze has a slight hazy amber color with a slight purple hue. The aroma is a interesting mix of raspberries and malts. So far, nothing overly surprising. As the raspberries are added to the brew after the filtration process, you may find little pieces of raspberry pulp floating about in your beer, this is totally normal.

As far as the taste goes, I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it’s because the Strawberry Lager and other fruit beers such as Greenflash’s Passion Fruit Kicker were crafted so masterfully, but I feel that the raspberry flavor did not live up to expectations. Thankfully, the inclusion of the raspberry was complimentary and not sweet enough to sabotage the flavor, but it feels as though the effort to subdue the flavors may have gone overboard.

The lager itself is a solid brew, nothing really to fault here. It presents some more malty flavors than many, which is something I like. It’s almost bread-y in flavor. But the raspberry seems very washed out and synthetic tasting. Although I don’t doubt they are real raspberries, I feel the balance just isn’t right on this one.

Despite being somewhat underwhelmed, I am excited by the offerings of Abita. As I have said countless times, their Strawberry Lager is exquisite, and I hear great things about many of their other brews. I am looking forward to trying their Blueberry Wheat which is now coming into season.

TL;DR

Abita’s Purple Haze is OK. While it failed to meet my expectations set by their superb Strawberry Lager, there is nothing inherently wrong with it. The base lager is decent, but the raspberry flavor just isn’t leveraged to its full potential. I would recommend trying this beer, but personally feel there are better fruit beers on the market.

Rating: 7/10

Question of the Day

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Learn more about Purple Haze on Abita’s website, Untappd and Beer Advocate.