Spyglass
Oct 05, 2026
Lemon Lime Tart
- Style: Tart ale, a gose recipe converted to a Fruit Tart
- Fruit: Lemon and lime
- ABV: 4.7%
- Label years on file: 2019 to 2021
- Status: Retired
The beer
Spyglass began as a gose and was converted to a Fruit Tart recipe, and lemon and lime turned out to be perfect for the style. It was a flagship for many years.
It was also the beer we handed to people who weren't sure about fruit beer. Everybody already knows what lemon and lime taste like, so there was nothing to explain. They took a sip, and then they usually took another. Of everything we've made, it was one of the easiest to introduce someone to.
Spyglass was last seen in the variety pack a few years ago.
The recipe changed, and we didn't write down why
The 2019 label lists 250 pounds of lemon peel and 200 pounds of lime peel in every batch. By 2020 the label reads 66 pounds of limes and 50 pounds of lemon zest.
Nobody recorded the reason. Our best guess is that juice and fruit puree carry a lot more flavor than zested peel does, so it took far less of them to get to the same place. If you worked the brewhouse in 2020 and remember it differently, we'd like to hear it.
The label
The captain on the label is modeled after Zheng Yi Sao, who commanded one of the largest pirate fleets in history in the South China Sea in the early 1800s. She ran it by a strict code and retired undefeated. We thought she'd earned a beer.
Spyglass is retired.
