Blueberry Ale! Oh how I love my blueberry ales. Spring and summer are the perfect time for them, my friends, and recently I was fortunate enough to get a bottle of Florida Avenue Blueberry Ale from my good friends Jim and Irene Stout of Stout’s Growlers fame. They picked this beer up during a trip to Florida.

Florida Avenue Blueberry Ale is a product of the Florida Avenue Brewery of Tampa, Florida. The company began life in 2010 as Cold Storage Brewing but changed its name a few years later. This is the first brew that I have tasted from them, as they do not distribute here in Georgia.

Interestingly, the label states that Florida Avenue Blueberry Ale is “Brewed by Cold Storage Craft Brewery, Tampa, FL and under Special Agreement Westminster, MA.” When I think of beer and Westminster, Massachusetts, I think of the Wachusett Brewing Company, makers of the famed Wachusett Blueberry Ale. I don’t have a bottle of same to side by side with Florida Avenue Blueberry Ale, though my tasting notes say the Wachusett Blueberry Ale has more fruit flavor. Since Florida Avenue no longer goes by the name of Cold Storage, it sounds like they contract brew their bottled beer at Wachusett, and Wachusett is still using up the last of their labels with the old brewery name on them (my sample was very fresh indeed).

From the neck label:

“Wheat ale with perfectly balanced blueberry aroma and flavor”.

No alcohol content is given.

Florida Avenue Blueberry Ale pours to a pale golden color with a light fizzy head of short-lived foam and a soft fruity nose of plump blueberries. Taking a sip, I get some refreshing tart crackery wheat up front followed by the fruit: light and subtle blueberry notes that can’t be mistaken but leave me wanting just a bit more. The finish is balanced again by the tart wheat. All in all, this beer is quite refreshing and with a bit more blueberry flavor would please me more, but I can’t deny it quenched my thirst and gave me some flavor while doing it.

A beer I would certainly buy again.



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