Lake Effect Brett Frambois

Brewed By: Lake Effect Brewing Company LLC in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Binny's in Naperville, IL; 2014 (Batch #150)

Style/ABV: American Wild Ale/Fruit Beer, 5.5% 

Reported IBUs: ?

After the not-so-impressive Pamplemousse, I wanted to give Lake Effect another shake. Here is to hoping for redemption. About Lake Effect Brewing: 

Lake Effect Brewing is a brewery based out of Chicago, Illinois. The brewery was founded by 
Clint Bautz and Lynn Ford back around 2012. 

Like the Pamplemousse, this has no website...this is a "beer brewed with spices and raspberries added." The bottle reads: "Fresh raspberries are added to our 100% Brettanomyces fermented base beer creating a secondary fermentation resulting in a brilliantly fragrant and deliciously tart beer. Savor its color and effervescence in a clear glass to maximize your drinking pleasure."

Lake Effect Brett Frambois

This one pours into a paper-light red body, with some pink highlights. This is all murky, and kicks up two fingers of pink/red-tinged head. Head retention here is surprisingly good, with a pinky hanging around. There is also a lot of carbonation at work here in the form of medium-small bubbles coming from various streams. The body has a gorgeous red body in bright light. There's nice lacing here too.

On the aroma: improvements. This already smells much, much more substantial than the Pamplemousse. I'm getting really nice, musty, attic funk here...and layers of raspberries. This goes from dusty, attic-funk raspberries, to wet rain and refreshing raspberries, to some currants and steeped tea raspberries, to raspberries on the vine. Unlike the Pamplemousse's flat aroma, this beer transports me to numerous places. There's some really nice Brett funk lurking beneath the aroma, with leathery and butcher shop seduction. Pretty excellent from the onset, let's see how it tastes. 

This is pretty good, actually. A big improvement over the muted and painfully dull Pamplemousse. This is still kind of light and mild...but at least the flavors advertised are present. Or at least some of them. This isn't really tart, but it definitely finds some funk. I'm getting a lot of wet rain, attic, and watery raspberries in the mix here. The raspberries go the jammy direction, and there are also a lot of raspberry tea and raspberry currant notes. There's actually some malts here, a wheat base? As a straight up fruit beer, this would be pretty solid. The raspberries stand out as a dominating flavor, with currants and raspberry tea. I don't know if I'd peg the Brett in a blind tasting, but if you pointed it out you could identify it.

This is light-bodied and refreshing, with a juicy and watery embrace. This drinks lighter than the 5.5%, which isn't a bad thing. Palate depth is solid here: this one excels as a fruit beer. Complexity is kind of average to below-average, I think, given the promise of raspberries gone wild. You know...I wonder if the Brett will funk up in the bottle here, but it's gonna be at the expense of the fruit. Up front: jammy and water raspberries; that rolls into raspberry tea, raspberry currants, a little wheat; the back end trails with raspberries, with some notes of Brett funk, and hints of raspberry fruit-roll-ups. The finish is actually really nice. I'm a little conflicted where I stand on this one.

Rating: Average (3.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is a Strong Average . This is a big improvement over the Pamplemousse, and something I would try again. I think this would be a fun one to age, and it makes me want to try more Lake Effect beers. As a Wild Ale/Brett Ale...this is average. As a fruit beer, it's still average. But it's a better fruit beer than a wild. Food pairings here: fruit salads, delicate fish, and angel food cake with strawberries.

Random Thought: Again, the onslaught of sour ales has elevated the bar, even in the Midwest.