29. Fruit Beer

The Fruit Beer category is for beer made with any fruit or combination of fruit under the definitions of this category. The culinary, not botanical, definition of fruit is used here – fleshy, seed-associated structures of plants that are sweet or sour, and edible in the raw state. Examples include pome fruit (apple, pear, quince), stone fruit (cherry, plum, peach, apricot, mango, etc.), berries (any fruit with the word ‘berry’ in it), currants, citrus fruit, dried fruit (dates, prunes, raisins, etc.), tropical fruit (banana, pineapple, mango, guava, passionfruit, papaya, etc.), figs, pomegranate, prickly pear, and so on. It does not mean spices, herbs, or vegetables as defined in Category 30 – especially botanical fruit treated as culinary vegetables. Basically, if you have to justify a fruit using the word “technically” as part of the description, then that’s not what we mean.

See the Introduction to Specialty-Type Beer section for additional comments, particularly on evaluating the balance of added ingredients with the base beer.

• 29A. Fruit Beer
• 29B. Fruit and Spice Beer
• 29C. Specialty Fruit Beer
• 29D. Grape Ale