Getting Fruity

In the past few months at Saltaire Brewery, the beautiful aromas of fruits such as blackberries, apricots and oranges have filled the air.

Back in April 2007, Saltaire Brewery produced an exclusive beer, flavoured with apricot, for the local Wetherspoons pubs, called “Fruit of the Spoon”. This was a fantastic success and led to further plans for fruit beers this year.

Following the careful choice of malt and hops to compliment the various fruits, Saltaire Brewery now produce, on an on-going basis, Blackberry Cascade (4.8%) and Sundowner Ale – an orange flavoured beer (3.8%). Another seasonal special has been Apricot Ale (4.2%).

Paul Simpson, Managing Director explained “As people start to look towards the summer and the evenings become warmer and longer, the popularity of these refreshing beers grows. Wetherspoon pubs such as The Richard Oastler in Brighouse have noticed that they have encouraged a large number of women to try real ale for the first time. Indeed, a number of pubs have a pump exclusively for fruit beers and have also arranged their own mini fruit real ale festivals.”

Moreover, Blackberry Cascade is now an award winning beer having won the 4.5% to 5% category at the recent Bradford CAMRA Beer Festival 2008.