Here’s To Drinking The Berry Best

As the artist formerly known as Prince might have sung, had he been Canadian: “A raspberry beer, eh?”

Warmer weather signals the beginning of prime fruit beer season, and raspberry seems to be the flavor favored by many microbrewers.

Not being a big fruit beer fan myself, I enlisted my wife’s aid in evaluating the two newest bottled raspberry beers on store shelves - Widmer’s Widberry and the Raspberry Cream Ale from Blue Moon, a Coors subsidiary - along with four more familiar labels.

My wife still stands by her old fave, Thomas Kemper’s Weizen Berry, a crisp, tart, straw-colored wheat beer with a berry taste that’s pronounced and lingering, but not overpowering.

The newcomers, however, were close behind. The Raspberry Cream, a smooth, sweetish beer, definitely lives up to its name. Widberry, made with black raspberries, has a distinctive, rich taste. Both are golden amber in color, with a strong berry aroma.

My personal pick was the Nor’Wester Raspberry Weizen, a deep golden beer that’s soft and smooth with a delightful spiciness from Mt. Hood hops. Table Rock’s Razz Berry Ale, paler in color with less berry flavor and a flatter finish, was still pleasant.

The closest thing to a dog in the bunch was the Honey Raspberry Ale from Spanish Peaks (the Black Dog people), a thinner beer with just a hint of honey in its rapidly disappearing aftertaste. As raspberries go, I’m afraid that it deserves one.

Black and white

If you haven’t already, check out some of the other offerings from Widmer and Blue Moon, both of which went on the market just as we went to press last month.

Portland’s Widmer, a former draft-only brewery, has been best known for its popular Hefeweizen, a yeasty, unfiltered wheat beer. It translates well to bottles, with perhaps even a bit more complexity than I rememember from the draft version.

But the real show-stopper is Widmer’s Blackbier, a roasty, chocolatey, coffeeish black beer that delivers lots of flavor while remaining very drinkable. There’s also an Amberbier, a bit on the thin side but smooth and clean with a light floral hop finish (a good candidate for pairing with pizza).

Part of the fun with Widmer is looking under the cap for the “prost,” or toast, to various honorees - such as black sheep, paleontologists, the human cannonball, fuzzy fruit, Q words and the platypus.

Blue Moon’s most ambitious brew is a Belgian White Ale, flavored with orange peel and coriander (distributors suggest serving it with a slice of orange, a la Widmer’s Hefeweizen and lemon).

It’s a distinctive style, although Blue Moon pales a bit by comparison with the whites from Seattle’s Kemper and the Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas (founded by Belgian Pierre Celis). But Kemper is available only as a summer seasonal, while Celis has become hard to find outside the Southwest since the brewery was bought by Miller.

Blue Moon also makes a Nut Brown Ale, which seemed a little lackluster to me compared to, say, the Table Rock rendition - although my wife liked the Blue Moon brown best.

Pub-lic works

On the local pub beat:

The pub at Sandpoint’s Pend Oreille Brewing Co. has opened for business, daily from 11:30 a.m. to midnight. The six-beer lineup includes a pair of rotating seasonals, such as Idaho Pale Ale (an IPA, of course) and Cedar Street Brown.

The Moon Time at 1602 Sherman in Coeur d’Alene, an English-style pub designed to bridge the gap between fine dining and the tavern scene, should be open soon. No beer will be brewed on-site, but there will be 19 micros on tap, including a hand-pumped beer engine and two nitrogen taps to produce mellower, less-carbonated brews.

Kent and Cheryl Roberts have broken ground for Casey’s Pub in Post Falls and plan a late Augustearly September opening. Look for a sneak preview of their Falls Brewing Co. beer at the Blues, Brews and Reggae Microbrew Festival on Aug. 3 at Silver Mountain.

A September opening is slated for the Bayou Blues Brewing Co., part of Spokane developer Steve Livingstone’s New Orleans-themed RiverWalk project along the Spokane River east of Trent and Hamilton. Along with beers by former Arbor Crest winemaker turned brewing consultant Scott Harris, such as Gator Ale and French Quarter Porter, a 300-seat restaurant will serve “Northwest Cajun” fare.

And the Bighorn Brewery at 910 N. Howard, across from the Spokane Arena, is scheduled to open the last week of September. The family-oriented sports bar and restaurant will serve six beers brewed on the premises, led by Buttface Amber, with its logo of two rams butting heads.

, DataTimes MEMO: On Tap is a monthly feature of IN Food. Rick Bonino welcomes reader questions and comments about beer. Write to: On Tap, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446, fax 459-5098 or e-mail to rickb@spokesman.com