Prickly Pear Beer Review – Unity 2012


I helped “unwrap” prickly pears on the brew day and then I helped on bottling day as the finished beer filled up bottle after bottle so I am a bit biased about this year’s Unity beer from Eagle Rock Brewery.

And it lived up to it! You get a bright prickly pear flavor right off the bat. The beer then settles into some other exotic fruit notes before finishing with a real cereal grain end. And it is just tart enough and effervescent to really add another layer to a really low ABV beer. This one is under 4%. The only flavor that I didn’t get on the palate was the rye. Maybe it was working in other ways, but I did not pick up much spice but that is a minor quibble with a really strong Berliner Weisse.

FoodGPS Teaser – Unity 2012

Tomorrow on FoodGPS, you will get the rundown on the Unity 2012 brew and some history of the Berliner Weisse style but to whet your appetite, here are some photos from Day 2 of the brewing process for the Prickly Pear Rye Berliner…..

These are really prickly, little slivers easily work their way into fingers as you try to cut them.

The cutting crew digging into the pears that will get bagged and dropped into the brew later.

The “souring” grains coming out of the wort.

The measuring of the teeny tiny amount of hops going into the beer.