My latest article for The Bulletin hit the stands last week, whereupon I wrote about the surge of fruit beers I’ve noticed lately, be they seasonal or regular. The two I primarily focused on the article, Cascade Lakes Brewing Pineapple Kush IPA and Worthy Brewing Farm Out Passion Fruit, fit each bill; Pineapple Kush is now year-round and in cans; Farm Out Passion Fruit is a spring seasonal.

Bend brewers offer a bumper crop of fruit beers:

Tropical fruits are a recurrent theme among fruited IPAs, largely because they mesh well with the tropical fruit notes that many of the newer hop varieties exhibit. Citrus, pineapple, papaya, mango, and more all feature prominently in this new wave of beers.

Accordingly, Cascade Lakes Brewing Company announced the year-round release of Pineapple Kush IPA earlier this month, on draft and in 12-ounce cans. According to president Chris Justema, the beer is brewed with three pounds of pineapple per barrel (31 gallons) of beer, not too much to overwhelm the style but enough for a “hint of the tropics,” according to the press release.

And, a day or so after I turned in my article, Deschutes Brewery sent me two bottles of its Passion Fruit IPA, yet another fruit beer. And beyond that, Silver Moon Brewing has Salty Bog Cranberry Gose back for spring (in cans this time around), Wild Ride Brewing has its rotating Tarty to the Party fruited kettle sour series, with the latest being Strawberry Lemon Sour Ale. Not even mentioning the various fruit beers being brewed by Bend Brewing, RiverBend, 10 Barrel, and so on. It feels like a flux in fruit, for which I don’t know if it’s the season or just where the current trends are going (particularly with fruit IPAs), but some of these beers are worth checking out.