{{Short description|Beer flavored with fruit}} thumb|A variety of fruit beers '''Fruit beer''' is beer made with fruit added as an adjunct or flavouring.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYVLHMmplRcC&pg=PA445|page=445|title=The Oxford Companion to Beer|author=Garrett Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|date= 9 Sep 2011|isbn=9780195367133}}</ref>
It can be made for example with strawberries, plums, raspberries, or cherries. It's an additive- or flavoring-containing form. Initially manufactured in Belgium, fruit beer is now available worldwide.
Lambic beers, originating in the Zenne valley in Belgium, may be refermented with cherries to make kriek,<ref>{{cite book|page=552|title=The Oxford Companion to Beer|author=Garrett Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|date= 9 Sep 2011}}</ref> or fermented with raspberries to make framboise.<ref>{{cite book|page=373|title=The Oxford Companion to Beer|author=Garrett Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|date= 9 Sep 2011}}</ref>
Flemish old brown beers go through a multiple stage fermentation process. After the first fermentation of the wort, sugar is added and the beer is refermented in wooden casks. Fruit beer can be made from them by using fruit instead of sugar.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.fruitbier.be/ |title=Fruitbier.be |access-date=2019-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180803215203/http://fruitbier.be/ |archive-date=2018-08-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Fruit beer generally has an alcohol percentage of around 4-8%, best served cold.
Elderberry juice is mentioned as an ingredient in some old porter recipes.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Compleat English Brewer |url=https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-compleat-english-bre_watkins-george_1767/mode/2up |author=Watkins, George |year=1767 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-compleat-english-bre_watkins-george_1767/page/122/mode/2up 123]|publisher=London: Printed for J. Cooke}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Town and Country Brewery Book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7FgAAAAcAAJ |author=Brande, W. |year=1830 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=F7FgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA149 149]-150 |publisher=London: Published by Dean and Munday}}</ref> The juice probably served as colouring agent. In England, elderberry beer (also called ebulum) was made by boiling elderberries in the first and strongest wort. ''The London and Country Brewer'' (1737) states that it has been often "preferr'd to Port-Wine, for its pleasant Taste and healthful Quality".<ref>{{cite book |title=The London and Country Brewer 3rd ed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63FZAAAAYAAJ |author=Ellis, William |year=1737 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=63FZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA31 31]-32 (The third Part) |publisher=London: Printed for J. and J. Fox}}</ref> The author of the aforesaid book also gives a recipe for blackberry ale.
The English writer John Evelyn states in his ''Sylva'' (1670) that ale and beer brewed with the ripe berries of quickbeam (mountain-ash) is an incomparable drink.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a38811.0001.001/1:29?rgn=div1;view=toc |author=Evelyn, John |year=1670 |page=[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A38811.0001.001/1:28?rgn=div1;view=fulltext 71] |publisher=London: Printed by Jo. Martyn and Ja. Allestry}}</ref>
Elizabeth Moxon gives a recipe for orange ale in her 1775 edition of ''English Housewifery''. The beverage was made by infusing sliced Seville oranges with raisins in ale for about a month.<ref>{{cite book |title=English Housewifery 11th ed |url=https://archive.org/details/englishhousewife00moxo/page/n5/mode/2up |author=Moxon, Elizabeth |year=1775 |page=[https://archive.org/details/englishhousewife00moxo/page/n153/mode/2up 142] |publisher=Leeds: Printed by Griffith Wright}}</ref>
==See also== *{{section link|Adjuncts|Fruit or vegetable}} *Kriek lambic *Framboise *Fruit lambic *Banana beer
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://books.google.com/books?id=63FZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA31 Recipe for Blackberry Ale and Elderberry Beer in ''The London and Country Brewer'' (1737)]
Category:Types of beer Category:Fruit drinks Category:Beer in Belgium Category:Beer in England