All About Fruit Smoothie Beers

Ever since their inception, fruit smoothie beers have been hitting the right notes, with colorful fruit purées, big foamy heads and playful packaging. From Oregon to Georgia, taprooms are serving up flavorful brews that build on already stellar IPAs, sours, and goses.

“The trend of heavily fruited smoothie-style ales started several years ago. We began experimenting with these in 2020 after many years of brewing kettle-soured ales with fruit. The safety and stability of these beers are key. Showcasing a wide range of fruits and making sure the packaged product is stable presents a fun, unique challenge,” said J.C. Hill, director of brewing at Alvarado Street Brewery in Salinas.

Hill said the trick to a good fruit smoothie beer is to balance the sweetness of the fruit with the acidity created during fermentation.

“You want to add enough fruit to create a full-bodied mouthfeel and maintain the target alcohol by volume. Since we are adding a high volume of fruit to the finished product, it's also important to gently flip the can before enjoying so that the fruit can homogenize prior to drinking it," said Hill.

Roads to Greatness

Brewers make fruit smoothie beers using a range of procedures.

Jeff Young, executive brewer and cofounder of Blue Owl Brewing in Austin, starts with an all-sour brew.

“Our technique involves adding super high proportions of fruit purée for flavor and body. Our first fruit smoothie beer was strawberry-rhubarb. It was a bit thinner than Kokomo Royale, our current fruit smoothie sour ale with pink guava, pineapple, cherry, lime, Jamaican pimento berry, allspice and Madagascar vanilla bean. This beer tastes like a tropical tiki cocktail,” said Young.

Dan Russo, director of brewing operations for Oakshire Brewing in Eugene, said the fruit smoothie beers in its Dreamsicle series started with an Imperial Sour base at 10 percent ABV.

“We have a tank that houses a lactobacillus culture we’ve cultivated for about six years. We then add fruit until it makes up about 40 to 45 percent of the total volume in the tank,” said Russo.

Russo said a brewer can also start with a Hazy IPA recipe that has a wheat and oat base and add vanilla bean and marshmallow creme.

“This gives the beer a taste and mouthfeel like a Jamba Juice smoothie. We then add the fruit purée on top of that,” said Russo.

Chris Elliott, chief brewing officer for Wild Leap Brew Co. in LaGrange, Georgia, said the brewery’s Smoothie Supernova begins with a gose or imperial gose with an ABV between 6 and 8 percent.

“After the beer has reached terminal gravity, or fermented appropriately, we crash it to 30 degrees and let it sit for at least a week. Then I add an aseptic purée, which offers microbial stability. The salt of the base brings out the salty-sweet flavors of the fruit. If necessary, I let the beer continue to crash until the solids from the purée drop out. We then move it to the canning line,” said Elliott.

In the past, Wild Leap made different types of berry lemonade smoothie beers, such as blackberry lemonade gose. Its current offering is a guava and passion fruit Imperial Gose.

Cold as Ice

It is important for a fruit smoothie beer to stay cold until it is consumed. Without proper preparation and treatment by the brewery, there is potential for yeast to ferment during packaging or distribution. This can produce additional CO2, which may result in a "gushing" or exploding can.

Dave Ohmer, general manager and head brewer of Urban South Brewery in Houston, said all of the fruited sours in its Spilled Series, including Spill, Spilled, Double Spilled, and Triple Spilled, remain chilled as they are mixed.

“We also clean out the beer as much as possible. This ensures few, if any, yeast cells make it into the can,” said Ohmer.

Ohmer said Urban South has a lot of experience with creating fruit smoothie beers. The Houston branch of the brewery opened in February 2020 and saw the fruit smoothie style hit its stride during the pandemic.

“Fruit smoothie beers played a big role in our survival during this first year of the pandemic. We’ve learned a lot about how to brighten flavors. That’s how we came to create the Spilled series, which contain varying amounts of fruit. Examples include the Double Spilled Fruited Sour in passion fruit, lime and grenadine, and the Triple Spilled Fruited Sour with strawberry, pineapple, mango and coconut,” said Ohmer.

Hill agreed a proper sanitation and cleaning regimen is paramount to reduce the risk of spoilage to fruit smoothie beers. Alvarado Street Brewery also works to remove all yeast prior to adding finishing fruit to ensure there is no refermentation in the can.

“We do a lot of testing to ensure the shelf stability and quality of our beer. We're targeting pH levels that inhibit the growth of unwanted microbes. We still recommend cold storing smoothie-style sours to keep the flavor fresh,” said Hill.

Hill said Alvarado Street Brewery perfects its recipes by making new beers every week. It often experiments with a twist on popular combinations.

“For example, we have a marshmallow sour ale with tangerines called Mallow Mania. We also have a series of frozen daiquiri series called Daiquiri Island with combinations of strawberry, banana, mango, pineapple and lime. Our brunch-inspired alliterative series called "Biggie's" features various combinations of berries, often paired with vanilla," said Hill.

Up Next

The next step for fruit smoothie beers is a turn toward dessert. The exploration could lead to a convergence with milkshake IPAs.

Russo said he looks forward to creating “extensive culinary beers” that combine fruit, cake and ice cream flavors.

“These beers will match fruits with the flavors and spices of swirl cakes and cobblers. I’m thinking coconut and cake batter or cinnamon and pear,” said Russo.

Russo said he would like to make an apple crisp-themed beer in the fall. He wants to work with new tropical fruits like soursop and goldenberry.

“In early September, Oakshire Brewing plans to release a cherry key lime pie beer made with graham crackers, a banana blueberry maple pancake cinnamon beer, and “Alive by Five,” a strictly fruited, full vegan beer. This beer will feature the five original citrus “Five Alive” flavors: lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange and tangerine,” said Russo.

Ohmer said Urban South is developing a “PBJ + Marshmallow” beer that will contain strawberries, blackberries, peanut butter and marshmallow.

Young said Blue Owl plans to release a banana-based smoothie or banana cream pie beer in late fall.

He is happy customers have embraced fruit smoothie beers.

“Their appreciation makes all of the work worth it. It’s not easy to create these beers. We go through a ton of prototypes and test batches. So much of what we do to make a fruit smoothie beer is contrary to the process of creating a traditional beer,” said Young.

Elliott said it is also hard to make fruit smoothie beers because it has been difficult to source a steady supply of quality fruit during the pandemic.

“A lot of fruits are seasonal. You have to know what you’re making and order the purées far ahead of time. For example, a raspberry lemonade could need a dose of sweet bold red fruit flavor. You can get that from black currant,” said Elliott.

Hill said in fall 2021, Alvarado Street Brewery would like to engage in more education efforts about fruit smoothie beers. The reopening effort has made it possible to engage in virtual and in-person experiences.

“Fruit smoothie beers often have a very decadent, pie filling-like impression. One area we haven't seen a lot of focus on is with regard to food pairing. Desserts are excellent candidates. Off the top of my head, I'd say cheesecake would be fantastic. You have complementary acidity between the dish and the beer, and the fruit serves as the counterpoint and top note,” said Hill.