The current vogue for beers that have fruit flavours might be said to have its routes in the efforts of some Belgian brewers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to imitate the heritage styles of fruit lambics by adding fruit juices, extracts, essences and syrups to a variety of different types of beer. In Belgium, experimentation reduced considerably after a few years, as brewers began to feel that it brought into question their credibility, without gaining much in the way of a new audience.
Brewers in countries with no heritage fruit beer styles have come up with occasional successful creations, such as Italian Grape Ales (IGA), and some of the sharp dry variants of beers like Gose and Berliner Weisse. Where fruit derivatives, used relatively sparingly, add to a beer’s character these can make interesting experiments. However, the current norm is to add fruit flavourings in large doses post-production, creating beers more akin to a Radler, or shandy, or those in which a shot of cordial is added to an industrial lager.
