Fruit beer has not always had the best reputation in craft beer circles. There was a time when “fruit beer” often meant that a brewery was taking some fruit syrup/concentrate of some sort and adding it to an American-style wheat beer, or something else light and sessionable. The resulting “fruit flavor” was typically sweet and rarely resembled the flavor of fresh fruit.

While there are still plenty of examples of what I describe above, there are many more great offerings of various styles of beer that incorporate fruit. Belgian-style sours/wild ales are my favorite examples, but IPAs, saisons, darker beers and more have been known to incorporate fruit these days.

The Sixgill, located in Fremont, has put together an impressive lineup of about 20 fruit beers (and a few ciders) that they will be featuring this Saturday starting at 11am for their First Annual Fruit Beer & Cider Festival.

Here is the confirmed list, with a few more likely to be added this week:

10 Barrel Apricot Sour
Cascade Kriek
Dogfish Head Festina Peche
Dogfish Head Positive Contact
Dogfish Head Black and Blue
Elysian Oddland 2 Spiced Pear
Elysian Mortis Persimmon Sour
Epic Brainless on Peaches
Epic Sour Apple Saison
Finnriver Habenero
Finnriver Farmstead
Fort George North VI Cranberry Coffee Porter
Fort George Magnifera Indicae Belgian w/ Mango
Mort Subite Kriek
Schooner Exact Kriek
Snipes Apple Pi Tart
Southern Tier Plum Noir
Upright Fantasia Wild Ale w/ Peaches (Bottle Pour)
Urban Family Don’t Panic IPA w/ Lemon and Grapefruit