Style: Wheat Ale

Pairs well with a fun indie title; a beat-em-up.

Welcome to another craft beer review for Games And A Glass! This week I am reviewing a beer from Ship Bottom Brewery, located in Beach Haven, New Jersey. The beer for this week will be their Blueberry Bikini Bottom, a blueberry wheat ale.

The history of Ship Bottom can be found on their site, and it’s about simple beginnings.

“Our humble beginnings started in the summer of 1995 in Ship Bottom, NJ. Back then we made our first batch of beer using a home brew kit that consisted of a plastic bucket, large spoon, bottling bucket and some bottle caps. We hardly knew what would be ahead of us 20+ years later! We learned a lot over the last 20+ years and feel that we really refined our craft. We have been encouraged to start a brewery by family and friends that love our handcrafted ales and finally decided to make our dream become a reality!

We have grown a lot since opening a Nano brewery in Wallingford PA back in 2012. In the Summer of 2016 we opened a 15 Barrel Production Brewery in Beach Haven NJ located inside Bay Village with an incredible Bay View. We are open Year Round at the Beach Haven Brewery and have a Tasting Room where you can sample or purchase our Handcrafted Ales and Lagers to Go. Our distribution is in cases of canned beer and kegs throughout New Jersey and in South Eastern Pennsylvania.

We hope that you will enjoy our passion for handcrafted beer as much as we do and encourage you to let us know how we are doing. Stop by the Brewery and Catch a Wave with Us!”

Some of Ship Bottom’s mainstays include their Beach Patrol hefeweizen ale, Barnegat lager and brut IPA. Their seasonal and limited releases include the imperial pumpkin ale, baconator stout and the mexican stout.

Their description for their blueberry wheat reads, “With a nod to one of the Garden State’s largest crops, our brewers used Jersey Blueberries to add a fruity finish to this crisp & refreshing wheat ale.”

And now onto my thoughts!

Nose: On the nose the aroma is pretty simple, but it works well. Its smell is light, with a bit of blueberry to match. While these two aromas work well there isn’t much beyond that, but the smell has me excited for the warmer weather and the style of beer that comes with it. I’m expecting these characteristics will translate to the taste as well.

Palate: The taste is fairly straightforward. It’s easy to drink, and the blueberry gives the beer a nice undertone to complement its wheat style. The blueberry that briefly sits on my tongue leaves me excited for the next, refreshing sip. However, as I get closer to finishing my glass, the blueberry flavor becomes a bit more noticeable and it’s a nice surprise that gives the beer a slightly bolder flavor.

Overall: This is a tasty beer! It’s exactly as advertised, with a fair aroma and taste that has a nice balance with the blueberry to it. At 4.7 percent ABV, it’s very light and easy to drink so you won’t feel bad about having one. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for something that isn’t the good, but typical, orange wheat beer. Cheers!

I’d like to thank you for reading my craft beer review. If there’s ever a craft beer you’d recommend I try and/or review, please let me know and I will try, to the best of my ability, to acquire it! And remember, like a fine alcoholic beverage or a memorable video game, please enjoy in moderation.

While you’re here, feel free to check out The Spirit Shop NJ on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and where I currently work, we have dozens of craft beers with new ones coming in weekly! Check us out!