Corporate flavor chemists infusing lime, strawberry and hints of cough syrup into flavorless brews have given fruit beers a bad rap. Anheuser-Busch’s ill-advised Wild Blue, released and thankfully forgotten several years ago, drew comparisons to canned blueberry pie filling and rubbing alcohol.

We can only hope the Lime-A-Rita, Straw-Ber-Rita and other abominations will soon meet their demise. Brewed well, however, a fruit beer pulls personality from whole fruits and berries. The result isn’t so much sweet or juicy as dry and fragrant.

As part of its signature Farm to Barrel series, Alamanac Beer Co. has released several new fruit-brewed beers in time to slake our summer thirst. Each beer is made with fruit from a different California grower, then brewed and barrel-aged in small batches.

‘For all our barrel-aged sours, we let them get completely fermented out, ‘ Alamanac co-founder Jesse Friedman says. ‘Then we add the fruit to the barrel for six or more months. What you’re left with tends to have the character of the fruit, without all the sweetness.’

Farmers Reserve Pluot: Pluots, the crossbred offspring of plums and apricots, wasn’t engineered until the late ’80s. But it’s quickly become a locavore favorite in the Bay Area. Alamanac’s Farmers Reserve Pluot captures the range of color and flavor of everyone’s favorite franken-fruit. Several varieties of pluots from Blossom Bluff Orchards are added to sour blonde ale and aged in oaken wine barrels to create this mildly acidic, vanilla-backed brew. Alcohol content: 7 percent.

Farmers Reserve Blackberry: Almanac’s wine barrel-aged American wild ale takes on the sweet-tart flavor of coastal blackberries from Swanton Berry Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountain. Friedman suggests pairing this with duck or summer salad. Alcohol content: 7 percent.

Dogpatch Sour: A tribute to Flanders Red-style beer, the Dogpatch Sour is a lightly tart ale brewed with California-sourced Rainier cherries and a blend of wild American and Belgian yeasts. Alcohol content: 7.5 percent.

Emperor Norton: Named after the 19th century oddball who issued his own currency and boasted of one day overthrowing the U.S. federal government, Emperor Norton is an eccentric Belgian-style ale aged with California apricots generously dry-hopped. Alcohol content: 9 percent. Available through August.