Liefmans Frambozenbier

Formerly brewed at Liefmans (Moortgat)
Style: Sour Ale
Oudenaarde, Belgium

draft - Pours reddish brown with a thin head. Raspberries dominate both the aroma and the taste, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not complex, but what’s there is good. It’s considerable tartness keeps it from being cloying. Give it a try.

Pours dark cloudy ruby with patchy off-white film. Aroma is huge fragrant fresh raspberries, trace yeast, malt (meal) and an oak, wood notes. Moderately tart raspberries, oak and cellar flavors, fading tart-sweet raspberry flavor, mild acidity. Medium bodied, spicy and fizzy-foamy palate.

12 oz (355 ml) bottle. Poured a lovely, murky burnt sienna into a flute with a tiny, rapidly diminishing creamy tan head. The nose is almost all raspberry, huge and inviting, very sweet with a vaguely yeasty undertone. Huge sweet raspberry at first taste, giving way to some tartness and horseblanket yeast. Medium-long sweet & bitter finish with the sourness becoming just a bit acrid. Very fun flavor on the whole if not terribly serious =) Medium body with a lively, champagne-like feel. On the whole this beer is maybe too sweet, but it would make a fine dessert beer.

(My bottle looked quite different than the picture at the left, so I’m not sure when it was bottled). The first two things I noticed about this beer were the strong raspberry aroma and the deep brown, opaque appearence. Other than the appearence and the beige head and nice lacing, I wouldn’t know this was a beer. The fruit flavor is very pronounced - not unpleasent (Stiegl comes to mind immediately, but I digress). I found this a very nice beverage, but it reminded me too much of a carbonated soda. There is also no hint of alcohol either (4% abv will do that, I guess).

Bottled 2005. Reddish brown colour, mediumsized offwhite head. Raspberries and some sourish hints in aroma. Flavour is sour raspberry with a bit wineish hints. Wellbalanced between sweet and sour, palate is semi-dry. Very refreshing.

bottled date 2005. a very nice blend of raspberries, cassis, beer and portwine with a woody touch. sourrish and tart, but also sweet and elegant. lovely balanced brew with a fruity, vinous and soft finish. nice! just as nice as the other natural fruitbeers from Liefmans.

750ml. Probably my favorite raspberry lambic, this beer really balances tartness and fruit such that one can actually enjoy a glass from start to finish without deadening the palate from sticky sweetness. The colour is hazy pink/red with a lightly tinted pink head. Fresh raspberries are the central aroma with just a touch of creamy pastry undertones. The beer is sour but, again, delicately balanced with fruit. Perfect for an outdoor summer day.

0.375 l bottle(edit 2005): Slightly red amber colour with a thin off-white head; strong fruity (raspberry syrup) sweetish and a bit sourish nose with a tinge of caramel; sweet fruity flavour, accompanied bvy some acidity; short, sourish, a bit sweet and fruity finish with some "woody" undertones. Not too sweet, but a bit too artificial......The good sour-ale qualities are a bit destroyed by a too distinctive artificial flavour !