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. 

New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 (2013 Vintage/Bottle)

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0%??? 

Reported IBUs: ?

Sigh. I'm getting a little teary-eyed here, this is the last of my stash of New Glarus beers. But worry not, faithful reader (all...three of you or whatever), for I will return to the land of cheese to buy more New Glarus beer in the future. In the meantime, we'll just have to wax nostalgia on my horrible New Glarus reviews. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased copper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Wisconsin Belgian Red Style is described as being a "marriage of wine and beer." This beer is brewed with whole Montmorency Cherries, Wisconsin Farmed Wheat, and Belgian Roasted Barley. The beer is lagered in oak tanks, and hopped with aged Hallertau hops. Each bottle features "over a pound of Door County Cherries." Bonus points: this beer is available year-round.

New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

The beer pours into a cerise/red/cherry wood color, and kicks up two or three fingers of cherry wood-tinted head. There's some nice lacing, and the beer is hazy in low light. The beer takes on a bright red, almost orange appearance in bright light...it actually looks fairly clear and filtered. There's some fat, large carbonation bubbles drifting upwards.

The aroma here is all cherry sex all day everyday. The cherry smell is familiar, and candy-like. If you think about it long enough you'll eventually stumble upon "Cherry Jolly Ranchers," because that's pretty much the aroma encapsulated. There's some dark/caramel sugars, and big Belgian yeast and bready Belgian aromas. There's also a little bit of that wet hay and barnyard funk (BUT NOT SOUR) that you find in the New Glarus fruit beers. Long story short: cherry Jolly Ranchers. 

The taste isn't anywhere near as Jolly Rancher artificial as the aroma...there's tons of cherries, cherry pie filling, actual cherries, cherry tannin and cherry skin, and a little Jolly Rancher cherry candy. The whole cherry sex delivery system is packaged with some hints of caramel sugar and Belgian yeast and bready malts. There's also an underlying tart/wet rain/hay/barnyard quality that suggests the oaky, spontaneous conception. 

This is a medium-bodied beer, with surprisingly light (but still dry and still champagne-like) carbonation. The beer has density, with divine palate depth and really nice complexity for what is essentialy a cherry Lambic/Cider thing. There's not a lot to hate on here. This is pretty much perfect for what it is, and it's so drinkable and enjoyable. Is it vinous or wine-like? I dunno, you decide. Up front: cherries, cherry pie filling, cherry currants, and cherry Jolly Ranchers; the middle is bready cherries, dark sugars, Belgian yeast, some hay and funk; the back end dials up some more funk, with slightly tart and acidic cherries on the finish. It finishes sweet, cherry, dry, champagne. 

Rating: Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)

Mother fucker. I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. I hate cherry candy, I really do. Cherry is my least favorite Jolly Rancher flavor. I'm just a strawberry and green apple kind of guy. And watermelon. I love watermelon. Cherry is kind of meh, you know? But it REALLY WORKS here. This beer is firing off on all cylinders. This beer really works the Belgian yeast, hints of caramel sugar, hints of bread, and light funk. It does it better than the Raspberry Tart, Serendipity, and Strawberry Rhubarb. It just does, and even though the Strawberry Rhubarb is maybe my favorite of the New Glarus fruit beers, this one is by far the clear winner. This is just world-class stuff to pair with steak, beef, potatoes, fruit salads, chocolate, raunchy burgers with cheese, strong cheeses, and ice cream. New Glarus lists out a bunch of food pairings that will probably work too (like lamb), but I'd stick with that medium-rare steak and chocolate cake. Just...really good. I can't not recommend this, especially at the price of $10 a bottle.

Random Thought: I hope to get up across the border within the next few months, so we will see how that goes. 

New Glarus Serendipity

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 (2013 Vintage/Bottle)

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0%??? 

Reported IBUs: ?

It's snowy and cold tonight, so let's be contrarian and drin a refreshing fruit beer. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Serendipity is a fruit beer brewed with cherries, apples, and cranberries. This fruit beer is aged in oak and spontaneously fermented. Blah blah New Glarus blah Fruit Beer blah you know the drill.

In low light, the beer pours into a murky/hazy reddish-brown color, kicking up three fingers of lofty, amber/red head. In bright light the beer takes on a darker red/orange color, and you can see some dotted carbonation rising in the hazy body. Head retention is nice, with tight lacing. Bright light confirms the reddish/orange/amber head. 

The aroma is where this beer shines. You get huge tart but not sour apples, cranberry, and big cherry. There's some pastry/pie filling, with cherry pie, apple pie, and some wet rain, wet hay, and barnyard. The fruit notes in this beer are vibrant and fresh, and the nose is inviting. This beer is like a mash up of the New Glarus Apple Ale with their Belgian Red. 

The taste: you get blasted with huge apple and cherry fruit...the whole beer has underlying tart (but not sour) barnyard funk, wet rain, and hay. There's big cherry pie filling, apple orchard and apple cider, hints of bready pastry, and underlying currants and herbal fruitiness. I'm getting freshly cut apples, and some light apple and cherry tannin. Really refreshing and good and vibrant.

This is another humdinger from the New Glarus fruit beer portfolio. This beer is medium-light bodied, with good palate depth and low complexity. There's a lot of carbonation and really enjoyable tartness. Yeah...this one is kind of sweet and one-dimensional, and it sort of rides that line of being a beer or being a cider or whatever. I don't know. I don't care...this is delicious. You get big cherry and apple up front; that explodes into sweet cherry and apple pie filling, with currants and hints of pastry, and some hay/barnyard funk; the back end dials up some lingering funk and malts, and finishes a bit abrupt and dry. The cranberry is present, as a tart character, and as cranberry-apple, crabapple, and cherry. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This absolutely nails the cherry/apple/cranberry thing, and it dials up plenty of juicy fruit sweetness, with tons of mild funk and barnyard. It's your typical New Glarus fruit beer...and it's good. Food pairings: fruit pies, fruit cakes, ice cream, pork with apple sauce, and Thanksgiving. Really solid and affordable (at around $10 a bomber), this would be perfect in the Autumn, Spring, or Summer.

Random Thought: This really isn't a Winter beer...so tomorrow night we are going to get back into beers appropriate for this shitty weather.

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 (2013 Vintage/Bottle)

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0%??? 

Reported IBUs: ?

Yup, I still have some New Glarus stuff lingering...I'm gonna try to kill it over the next few days. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Strawberry Rhubarb is a spontaneously fermented beer brewed with strawberries and rhubarb. Suggested food pairings include butter croissant, pan fried whitefish, baked chicken, mascarpone and brie cheese, ice cream, and angel food cake.

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

This is an ugly beer...it pours into a murky and swampy brown color. It looks like Wisconsin pond water, and I mean that in the best way possible. The beer does produce a lofty, dense, three fingers of khaki/light brown/sandy head. Head retention is good, and there's minimal lacing. In the brightest of light, the beer picks up orange and red tones, but it's still murky. There's some lazy carbonation.

You won't care much about how this beer looks (nor should you care much about how any beer looks, really) when you get some of that awesome aroma. This beer smells like strawberry rhubarb pie and pastries, with huge strawberry rhubarb pie filling, strawberry sweetness, strawberry Big League Chew and candy, and some doughy and pastry hints. There's a lot of strawberry and fruit sugar on the nose, but I think there's some bready, caramely malts in the mix. There's a hint of wet rain and hay funk on the nose as well, which definitely suggests something like a fruity lambic or spontaneously fermented beer.

What is there to say about this beer? It really does follow through the nose, with pretty dense, malt-driven blasts of strawberry, rhubarb, and strawberry rhubarb pie. You get lots of strawberry: currants, Big League Chew and strawberry Blow Pops, and tons of pie crust and pastry dough. The beer has hints of bready, and there's plenty of hay funk to keep things interesting. It's really good.

I think even the most cynical people can appreciate the simplicity of this beer. Yeah, it's not uber complex, but the palate depth is outstanding. It's low-ABV, drinkable, and actually pretty affordable at $10 per 750ml bottle. It's a reasonably priced treat. The mouthfeel is medium-full, but drinkability is high thanks to lots of carbonation, and that slightly tart (but not sour) hay funk that hangs over the beer. It's sweet...but not aggressively so. It's sweet in a bready sort of way. Up front: tart strawberry and rhubarb, strawberry and rhubarb pie; that rolls into big strawberry, strawberry gum and candy, bready strawberry sweetness, currants, and more strawberry; the back end trails off with lingering strawberry, bready notes, sweetness, lingering hay funk, and it finishes a bit like fruity champagne. I love it.

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is maybe my favorite of the New Glarus fruit beers, even though it's probably not the best. I would say this compares favorably to their Apple Ale in terms of what you are getting, which is basically a bready and dense Brown Ale type beer with the fruit trimmings and spontaneous fermentation. It's just a polished, straightforward beer. I would second the suggestion to pair this with angel food cake or strawberry short cake. You could also pair this with vanilla ice cream, strawberry rhubarb pie, buttery white fish, and definitely with pancakes or waffles and a berry fruit syrup. This beer screams breakfast pairing. Serve it in champagne glasses split up among several people. Or whatever.

Random Thought: I still have the Belgian Red and the Serendipity on deck. I might bust one out on Sunday night. 

[Compare and Contrast] New Glarus Raspberry Tart vs. Lindemans' Framboise

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0% 

Reported IBUs: ?

Brewed By: Brouwerij Lindemans in St Pieters Leeuw-Vlezenbeek, Belgium

Purchased: Single bottle 355ml/12oz bought at Malloy's Finest Wine & Spirits in IL; 2013

Style/ABV: Lambic - Fruit, 2.5%

I recently reviewed New Glarus' Raspberry Tart and found myself comparing the beer to Lindemans' Framboise. As you can see, I did review the Framboise a long time ago. It's a shitty review, but that's par the course for this blog.

I thought it would be fun to do a quick comparison of the readily available Lindemans' Framboise vs. the New Glarus Raspberry Tart. So I headed out to the store, snagged a bottle of Framboise, and took some notes. The results are probably not surprising, but I was a little surprised at how far off I was in terms of how I remembered the Framboise.

Appearance:

Raspberry Tart (left) / Framboise - radioactive purple (right) 

Lindemans' Framboise: Fucking purple. You cannot miss this radioactive purple abomination. This looks like something straight out of a Marvel comic book that is going to give you super powers. This one pours into a purple body, and kicks up a couple of fingers of pink/purple head. The beer is super effervescent and has good lacing.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: I stand by my earlier review. This beer pours into a dark, hazy, mahogany/red body. This one kicks up a finger or two of mahogany/orange head, and has good lacing. This beer is also super effervescent.

Aroma:

Lindemans' Framboise: Raspberry syrup. Like the sugary stuff you buy at the store to put in your tea. This beer has that sucrose aspect that is artificial as hell but welcoming if you like sugar. There's also a good amount of raspberry currant and tea on the aroma, with some mild Belgian funk and barnyard esters. The sweetness dominates the funk.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: Subtle is the name of the game. There's not as much on the aroma here, but you get fresh raspberry. There's a mild tea note, with some hops. There's also big malts and sugars on the nose. There are some really nice complex sugars at work here, with some bready hints. Nice.

Taste:

Lindemans' Framboise: The taste mirrors the nose, with aggressively sweet raspberry syrup, currants, sugary sweet kisses, and some light barnyard funk that is overpowered by sucrose.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: This beer is exploding with authentic raspberry off the vine, mild currants/tea, and tons of malty complexity that hint at bread, caramel, brown sugar, and caramel. The level of malt complexity in the Raspberry Tart compared to the Lindemans' Framboise is like night and day. There's also an apple note here that I can't quite place, and a hint of pie crust.

Mouthfeel/Drinkability:

Lindemans' Framboise: This is super carbonated, super sweet, and very drinkable. The mouthfeel is medium-light to light bodied, and complexity is low but the palate depth is good. You get raspberry syrup up front; that rolls into currants; there's a hint of malt and barnyard funk, and the finish is sweet with fake sugar sucrose goodness.

Raspberry Tart is the clear winner here.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: Carbonated, drinkable, medium-bodied...good palate depth, good complexity. This is less funky than the Framboise, but a little more tart. There's legit raspberries up front; bready malts and complex sugars in the middle; and great raspberries on the finish.

Rating: 

Lindemans' Framboise: Strong Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: Strong Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

Final Thoguhts:

So, my memory totally sucks and failed me. The New Glarus Raspberry Tart is a complex beer when compared to the Framboise. The Raspberry Tart has a much more authentic, nuanced raspberry flavor, and it has way more depth of malt. The Framboise dials up the raspberry syrup, and it is much sweeter. The only thing going for the Framboise is that buried beneath the sugar is some Belgian "barnyard" funk and some nice bready notes. It's not a bad beer by any means, but the sugar is anything but subtle. Also, the radioactive purple looks totally fake. 

Also, New Glarus sells 750ml bottles of the Raspberry Tart for 10 dollars! The 750ml bottles of the Framboise retail for around 15 dollars. That makes the Raspberry Tart a better bargain and a better beer. 

Random Thought: Haters gonna hate. I still think the Lindemans' Framboise is a respectable beer. It's good for what it is, and pairs well with ice cream, and aggressive savory dishes. If you are taking note, you'll notice that I lowered my review/score of the Framboise. The Raspberry Tart holds steady, and will pair well with a myriad of savory dishes and sweet sauces. Om nom nom.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0% 

Reported IBUs: ?

Oh, the places I have gone, and the things I have done. Yes, I am back from my vacation. And if tonight's beer is any indication, my vacation was in cheese land. I went to the land where the New Glarus poureth freely and liberally. What a sweet land that place be. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Raspberry Tart is fantastic, and I say that with the confidence of someone who consumed several of these bottles during my stay in Wisconsin. This framboise-style beer is brewed with Oregon raspberries that are fermented spontaneously in large oak vats. This beer also features Wisconsin farmed wheat, and year old Hallertau hops to help round things out.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart

The beer pours into a hazy, dark red body, with a finger of dark, off-white head. In lower light, the body of this beer is dark red with mahogany tones. In bright light, the body picks up some orange tones; the head also takes on an orange tint in bright light. There's a lot of carbonation streaming upwards in this, and the beer is super effervescent.

On the aroma: raspberries. Like, straight legit raspberries off the vine. You also get some raspberry currants, and tea-like raspberry aromas. There is also some sugary malt sweetness on the nose, almost hinting at caramel. There are tons of tart raspberries, and maybe a hint of mild, floral hops.

The taste reminds me of one of my favorite beers, the evil and hated Lindemans' Framboise. I would love to do a blind tasting comparing the Raspberry Tart to the Lindemans' Framboise, and in fact, maybe I will do just that in the future. The taste here is pretty simple, but it is so elegant and spot on that you can't complain. You get hit up with super fresh, bright raspberry. The raspberry is slightly tart/acidic, with a hint of raspberry currants and hops, and a hint of malt sweetness and "oak sweetness" to round things out. The oak and sour in this are super mild. However, this beer is plenty tart, and features vibrant raspberry juice in the taste.

At around 4.0%, this beer is super drinkable. It's also easy-going, like a framboise should be. It's a fruity beer that accomplishes everything it sets out to accomplish, while keeping the complexity on par for the style. Palate depth is off the charts, as this beer explodes in your mouth with a medium-full body that drinks way lighter thanks to the fact that the main flavor is tart raspberry, and there's tons of carbonation. You get tart raspberry and raspberry currants up front; that rolls into tart and juicy raspberry, with more raspberry tea; the finish rolls out some malt sweetness which packages things up nicely. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I'm hesitant to elevate this to top-tier, divine brew status. While this beer is fucking amazing like magnets and unicorn blood, it also suffers from a few of the fatal flaws that the Lindemans' Framboise suffers from. Namely, it's a bit one-dimensional and sweet. Maybe a bit more sour, funk, or oak would elevate this, but who am I to complain. I have a feeling the folks at New Glarus could change this beer, but they aren't because they like it. And I say cheers to that. I'll echo the food pairings on New Glarus' website. I think this beer would go great with fresh berries, cheesecake, chicken, duck, strong cheeses, and anything that benefits from the addition of some raspberry. I'd recommend this, especially since the 750s are only like 10 bucks. 

Random Thought: Some thoughts on my delay...two words: food poisoning. I got it on the last day of my trip, and I've been recovering ever since. I'm actually still in the recovery process, so we will see how tonight's beer goes. 

New Belgium Frambozen

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.

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.