Purple Haze...is in my glass

Have I ever mentioned that I like fruit beers?  

With that in mind, I decided to take Abita's Purple Haze for a spin.  It is a raspberry wheat brew, according to the words on the bottle.  

Unlike the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name, Purple Haze beer does not hit you in the face with intensity.  It is a mellow, smooth, chilled out beer that is incredibly light.  It has a nice golden color (they claim that it has some purple in it, but that's as much of a stretch as me saying I weigh 200 pounds...although severely obese is probably reaching as well), refreshing fruity aroma, and decent head.  

The smell belies the taste, though.  There is virtually no significant raspberry flavor to speak of, in my opinion.  I certainly wasn't expecting the amazing jolt of Lindeman's Framboise or anything of the sort, but I was thinking something comparable to the strawberry flavor of Pete's Strawberry Blonde.  Not so.  It basically just has sweet overtones to an otherwise decent wheat beer.

Other than the fact that I feel completely lied to, deceived, and metaphorically violated, the beer is a decent enough endeavor.  I imagine it would be great with a nice summer salad with some fruit and nuts in it, for example.  So just do that sometime 9 freaking months from now...I never promised great timing, folks.  

If I were to invent a rating system right now from scratch, it would have something to do with the beautiful Requiem by Gabriel Faure that is currently playing on the record machine.  That's why I'm going to rate this beer on a scale that I will almost assuredly abandon before it ever gains any momentum whatsoever and give it 5 boy sopranos out of a possible 10 boy sopranos.  I don't promote underage drinking, but I do promote underage boys singing liturgical texts.

Try some Abita Purple Haze if they're out of 8 other beers...you won't be disappointed in anything other than the selection where you ended up settling for Abita Purple Haze.

Comments

[Jett]

Found my way here from Mostly Cajun's place, so Abita is one of my local brews. Nonetheless, I'm pretty objective--not everything they do is "all that." Your experience with PH, though sounds like a "freshness" problem. PH was not even offered in bottles for a long time and probably still shouldn't be. It's shelf life and temp sensitivity are problems for folks beyond the Gulf Coast region. When we get it fresh, the raspberry bouquet, tint, and flavors are pronounced, but well integrated with the brew. It is one of my favorite "occasional" beers. Their IPA is, I think, fundamentally a much better brew and "regular" drink, though. Drop down to N'awlins sometime and see for yourself. You need to compare our oysters with the PacNW variety, too.