On Tuesday, Pair O’ Dice Brewing Co. in Clearwater hosted a unique Tampa Bay Beer Week event featuring fresh fruit-infused beers.
According to Julia Rosenthal, owner and co-founder of Pair O’ Dice, the idea emerged from the popularity of the Lucky Lucy Strawberry Blonde, an award-winning seasonal ale in the brewery’s arsenal since its start in 2013.
Julia spent her childhood in Plant City, where strawberries were always a big deal. Now, that’s where she and husband and head brewer Ken pick up strawberries every year for their special brew.
While planning for Beer Week, the Rosenthals decided to see what else they could make out of local, in-season fruits, especially those other than citrus.
They started by scouring farmers’ markets.
“We just picked up whatever looked good,” Julia said.
With some of the fruits, it was difficult finding the quantity and quality they required, but visiting lots of fruit stands eventually paid off.
“Some of the starfruits were probably just grown in St. Pete on someone’s tree,” she said. “It’s kind of neat.”
For Ken, the challenge was to then balance the flavor of each fruit with the right variety and intensity of hops. In the Guava IPA, for example, the pungency of the guava is countered with citrusy hops.
Other offerings the brewery concocted included a Starfruit Pale Ale, Papaya Wheat, Grapefruit Amber and Nitro Strawberry Cream.
Brewing beers with fruit requires extra time to ensure the flavors are properly infused. There can also be issues with consistency, depending on the fruit’s quality, but the Rosenthals said they learned a lot about batch quality control during their years working for Anheuser-Busch.
“If someone comes and tries one of our beers and loves it, we want it to taste the same when they try it a year later,” Julia said.
Planning the fruit beer release gave Pair O’ Dice tons of ideas for future brews as well. The crew can’t wait until the spring and summer when more flavorful fruits like pink guava come into season.
The brewery has several other events planned before the end of Beer Week, including a Stout Smackdown Wednesday night (13 stouts will be featured on tap), the release of the brewery’s first barrel-aged beer on Thursday, and Friday’s third annual Brew & BBQ.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2016.
