I'm Your Huckleberry: Bitter Root Proves Best Beer is Local with Summer Seasonal

Bitter Root Brewing, Hamilton, MT
Sampled: Sept. 8, 2010
Hunting down ale brewed with huckleberries proved tougher than I imagined. Great Northern offered a huckleberry wheat lager, but their standard lager tasted nearly identical Yuengling. While I always enjoy a Yuengling, I craved something a little different, that might push boundaries.

Then I stumbled upon Huckleberry Honey Ale, another lush libation from Bitter Root Brewing of Hamilton, Montana. The brewer only sells its brews in 22 oz. bomber bottles at retail, and the quality shows.

Now, if I had a girlfriend, this bottle would cause obvious problems. Not only is the label provocative, but Huckleberry Honey is a triumphant summer ale, with perfect layers of fruit, wheat malt and honey. If I made its way out of the Mountain States, I would always make room for a few bombers.

At first past, Huckleberry Honey tastes remarkably similar to other perky wheat ales produced with bramble fruit - the Northeast blueberry beers, Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier and Eel River's Acai Wheat. What separates it are the fruit's own properties and the presence of honey. The huckleberry goes in slightly different directions, Sine they are sweeter than blueberries, sharpens the flavors sharpen in Huckleberry Honey until the honey comes to round off the edges.

The huckleberries impart a bitterness that steamrolls most hop aroma and leaves only residual bitterness . The berry doesn't quite pucker the mouth with its tart qualities, the perfect way for a summer thirst quencher to hit the palette. That's where the honey emerges, mingling with the wheat while softening those tart textures with a milder sweetness.

Huckleberry Honey opens new horizons for fruit ales with that local honey. Once again, the skill of Western Montana's best brewery bubbles to the top.