Before we begin, I must give you an idea who Abita Brewing Company is.

The Abita Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Abita Springs, Louisiana, 30 miles north of New Orleans. They first began brewing beer in 1986. That year, the company produced 1,500 barrels of beer. Today, they brew over 80,000 barrels of beer annually and 5,000 barrels of root beer annually.  We'll visit more of their beers later, but for now its on to Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager.

From their site: "Strawberry Harvest Lager is a wheat beer made with real Louisiana strawberries, picked late in the season when they’re at their sweetest. This brew has earned quite a reputation in a short time, causing the brewery to up their production year after year. When this brew is found, emails and phone calls fly to friends informing them of the store’s location. Strawberry Harvest is a crisp, light lager with just a hint of strawberry sweetness. It is wonderful with desserts or lighter fares such as salads and pastas. Fresh cheeses such as Burrata, chevre, Creszenza, mozzarella or Teleme pair well with Strawberry Harvest."

I recently toured their brewery in the midst of the Strawberry Harvest season.  Pulling into the parking lot, the building permeated of strawberries.  The picture above shows just one set of boil pots and burners reducing strawberries down in a stew to add in their brewing process of the lager.  I’ve got to tell you that the smell was blissful.  The entire brew house was filled with the sweet smell of ripe strawberries cooking away.

Its amazing how involving more of your senses bring greater appreciation to something that otherwise appears normal.  I had Strawberry Harvest before and didn’t think much about it until I experienced the brewing process.  The process showed me that the ingredients is real and not some manmade flavoring to resemble strawberries.

Description: Light golden color. Very strong head formation. Pearly white head. A hair of lacing inside from some yeast suspension and light amount of apparent carbonation. They were successful in getting strawberry front and center on the nose. The strawberries are not as pronounced on the palate as they are in the nose.  They come through more sweet and pleasant on the front side. A pale malt and wheat flavor comes through at the end.  It almost tasted like a Strawberry Wheat Ale versus a lager.  My only real criticism is consistency of flavoring.  After having a few six packs over a few weeks, I noticed that one batch to another would have more or less strawberry flavor and scent than the last.  In the end, this isn’t a detriment to the beer.  Knowing that the process is real and a seasonal craft brew, I expect some variation and welcome it.

Abita, you have been Gastrotapped. ;)