 Scubatrip (310), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
Mar 14, 2008
From the bottle, pours a dark cloudy red with a decent white head, nice lacing. Aroma is quite fruity, very raspberry, as would be expected, I guess. Taste is the same, very raspberry. Light and not overly carbonated. Pretty good fruit beer.
slimchill (604), Austin, Texas, USA
Jul 19, 2008 Bottle. Strong but not deep raspberry aroma. Dark red-amber with a steady thinnish head. Somewhat harsh with an unbalanced sweetness. Mildly dry and alcoholic in the finish.
pepsican (645), the beer wastelands of, Iowa, USA
Jul 12, 2008 Bottle from LB4LB. Brown pour with a medium sized reddish white head. Aroma of raspberry and nuts. Flavor was similar, heavy malts and lots of grain. Finishes mildly sweet, snappy carbonation.
kmweaver (1813), Takoma Park, Maryland, USA
Jul 3, 2008 12oz bottle, courtesy of a recent trade (that I’ve lost track of, in my old age). Thanks!! Pours a murky, pitty brownish-raspberry color; light tan head with fine-bubbled lacing. Solid, legitimate raspberry presence in the aroma: pitty, ripe, with some dates and raisins mixed in; not especially sweet, but a bit dull. Medium mouthfeel: slightly metallic twinge at the edges, with pleasant raspberry and dried red fruit notes at the core; a touch watery; again, the fruit note is genuine and dry enough, it’s just not exceptionally defined or good. Relaxed carbonation doesn’t help. Medium finish: raspberries, dried fruits, and a dry bready note poking through.
Nik925 (52), California, USA
Jun 9, 2008 New Belgium usually comes up a little short but they really got this one right. While I’m not a huge fan of Brown ales, or fruited beers, this was a winning combo.
FeloniousCaper (437), Illinois, USA
Apr 19, 2008 12oz Bottle
Got this in a trade awhile back from Taynor, thanks a million Dana! New Belgium’s Frambozen pours darker than I expected. Glowing mahogany with cherrywood highlights adorn the glass. A healthy finger and a half worth of ecru head formed on the pour and slowly fell to a half finger as I watched, leaving thin sheet lacing on it’s way down. As I take a closer look there seems to be a pinkish tint in the head from the raspberrys used. A really appetizing beer!
There seems to be a dusty somewhat nondescript bready maltiness laying down a base for pure raspberry jam. The longer my nose sits above the glass the more intense the jam becomes and the more the maltiness falls by the wayside. The maltiness isn’t anything to get excited about but the raspberry jam smells delicious.
The jam comes through a little tart upfront but sways quickly into a pleasant sweetened raspberry. The tart and sweet play off each other very nicely butting heads throughout without ever fighting too much to get in the way. That nondescript bready maltiness comes through in the back but, fortunately, the raspberry seems to push it back far enough to keep from being distracting.
The mouthfeel is good for the style. It seems to lean toward the lighter side of medium but has a little stick on the back of the throat. Even though there isn’t much carbonation present it keeps flowing at a healthy pace with the lighter body.
One of these is enough for me in a sitting, just like with most fruit beers. It certainly is refreshing though. A good brew to sip on a lazy Sunday with a big brunch.
A solid fruit based beer from New Belgium. This is my first sampling of it and I wouldn’t hesitate to try it again. As I work through the bottle the sweetness seems to grow, so one bottle is plenty in a sitting but it’s an all around good beer.
4/11/08
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