Brewed By: New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado
Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in IL; 2013
Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 6.5%
Reported IBUs: 16
With Winter knocking on the door and Thanksgiving this week, a raspberry brown ale seems strangely appropriate. About New Belgium:
New Belgium is based out of Fort Collins, and opened in 1991 when founder Jeff Lebesch took his home-brewing into the commercial world. At this point in time, New Belgium has mainstream fame from their Fat Tire, and craft beer credit for their sour beers. New Belgium is the thrid-largest craft brewery in the United States. You can read more about New Belgium if you check out their company page, and definitely cruise their website.
The Frambozen is a winter seasonal. The side of the bottle states: "Flemish for "raspberry", is our big, luscious celebration of the ruby red fruit found in Belgium's Framboise ales. Our version is brewed with real northwestern raspberries. Gaze upon Frambozen's deep warming color and infuse your senses with berry goodness. This Colorado holiday tradition should be served cool in a worthy glass for the best sensory experience." Brewed to 6.5% ABV and clocking in at 16 IBUs, this fruity brown ale is brewed with berry juice which gets added in fermentation. Brewed with Target hops, Pale, Munich, C-80, Carapils, and Chocolate malts, this is described as a caramel-raspberry explosion.
The Frambozen pours a dark, reddish-brown color, and kicks up two fingers of pink/dark red/brown-tinted head. The head dissolves into some haze with a ring of carbonation hanging on the edge of the glass with residual lacing. Bright light confirms the filtered, dark red body. There's not much carbonation in this.
The aroma here is all about the raspberry currants, raspberry tea, sour raspberry candy (as per NB's website), some raspberry puree/jam, and lots of caramel sugars and raspberry sugar.
And the taste...surprisingly straightforward, there's a fair amount of malt and malt density, with some caramel, light brown sugar, a little toast and nuttiness, raspberry candies, and some bready density and legit pie crust notes. I'm getting lots of hints of pie. It reminds me of Dogfish Head's Fort, minus the booze and all that. The pie thing reminds me of Founders' Cerise.
This is pretty aight. At 6.5%, this beer has a really dense body, punching in with a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel. Palate depth is good, and complexity is moderate. This combines bready, pie-crust like malts with blunted raspberry. Actually, credit to this beer for not making the raspberry overly sweet. Drinkability is high. You get some sweet brown sugar and malt up front; that gives way to raspberry, raspberry currant, pie crust, raspberry tea, raspberry candy, lightly tart raspberry, jam; the back end drops in some toast and nutty raspberry, very festive.
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| New Belgium Frambozen |
The Frambozen pours a dark, reddish-brown color, and kicks up two fingers of pink/dark red/brown-tinted head. The head dissolves into some haze with a ring of carbonation hanging on the edge of the glass with residual lacing. Bright light confirms the filtered, dark red body. There's not much carbonation in this.
The aroma here is all about the raspberry currants, raspberry tea, sour raspberry candy (as per NB's website), some raspberry puree/jam, and lots of caramel sugars and raspberry sugar.
And the taste...surprisingly straightforward, there's a fair amount of malt and malt density, with some caramel, light brown sugar, a little toast and nuttiness, raspberry candies, and some bready density and legit pie crust notes. I'm getting lots of hints of pie. It reminds me of Dogfish Head's Fort, minus the booze and all that. The pie thing reminds me of Founders' Cerise.
This is pretty aight. At 6.5%, this beer has a really dense body, punching in with a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel. Palate depth is good, and complexity is moderate. This combines bready, pie-crust like malts with blunted raspberry. Actually, credit to this beer for not making the raspberry overly sweet. Drinkability is high. You get some sweet brown sugar and malt up front; that gives way to raspberry, raspberry currant, pie crust, raspberry tea, raspberry candy, lightly tart raspberry, jam; the back end drops in some toast and nutty raspberry, very festive.
Rating: Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm feeling a Strong Average on this beer. Very solid. I don't know how else to describe it. It removed my pants, but didn't spell the alphabet with tongue. Actually, I'm not dogging this beer at all...this is a Winter classic, and that raspberry candy juxtaposed with dense malt goodness makes for a solid brew. I would give this a recommendation for the Winter at around 10 dollars a 6-pack, but there are better fruit beers out there. Food pairings: duck, purple potatoes, turkey with gravy, grilled meats, beef roast, red meats with fruity sauces/glazes, rustic vegetables. This is almost vinous like a red wine, and seems like it would be right at home at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table. What a fantastic food beer we have right here.
Random Thought: Ughh. My liver. Tonight be a twofer.
I'm feeling a Strong Average on this beer. Very solid. I don't know how else to describe it. It removed my pants, but didn't spell the alphabet with tongue. Actually, I'm not dogging this beer at all...this is a Winter classic, and that raspberry candy juxtaposed with dense malt goodness makes for a solid brew. I would give this a recommendation for the Winter at around 10 dollars a 6-pack, but there are better fruit beers out there. Food pairings: duck, purple potatoes, turkey with gravy, grilled meats, beef roast, red meats with fruity sauces/glazes, rustic vegetables. This is almost vinous like a red wine, and seems like it would be right at home at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table. What a fantastic food beer we have right here.
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