Style: Lambic
From: Lindemans Farm Brewery
Lambic is an unfamiliar beer style to most Americans, but it’s not new. Lambics have been produced for probably 500 or more years, and come from the Payottenland region of Belgium, and still aren’t often found on tap in the U.S. Lindemans is located in the town of Vlezenbeek, southwest of Brussels, and began commercial brewing in 1811.
Framboise pours an amazingly deep reddish pink, with a very creamy pink head that subsides quickly and leaves little in the way of lacing. It’s a very bubbly beer, almost more like champagne than a beer. Served in a flute, the comparison to champagne is even more noticeable.
The aroma is intensely raspberry, and it’s definitely a “real raspberry” smell, not a candy-like or artificial raspberry perfume. It’s nicely sweet, but like raspberries is also tart, so that the aroma is not overpowering.
And the flavor of Framboise lives up to the aroma’s advance billing – raspberry, raspberry, and more raspberry. Don’t expect beer that tastes a little like fruit, because in this beer, the fruit is front and center. In fact, the fruit flavor may make you think more of wine than beer. It’s very sweet, but also has a slight bite or sourness that prevents the beer from being cloying. It’s difficult to detect any hop flavor or aroma, and the bitterness disappears under the berry flavor. The alcohol bite also disappears under the fruit flavor, and it would be very easy to drink several without realizing the effect.
Framboise has a rich and creamy mouthfeel. Because it has a fair degree of carbonation, it feels much more crisp and clean than you might expect from the initial sweetness. But unless you have a big sweet tooth or fondness for fruit, it’s not likely that you would want to have several in one sitting.
Framboise is a very intensely flavored beer, so it can stand well on its own, especially as an aperitif or as a dessert on its own. It would also be delicious with a dessert, especially chocolate or a rich ice cream or frozen custard. It’s best served at 45-50 degrees, slightly warmer than you may be accustomed to, but the warmer temperature will bring out undertones of flavor and aroma that might otherwise remain hidden under the berry. Framboise is best served in a flute, snifter, or tulip glass.
Unfortunately, Framboise is not commonly available on draft in most bars, but is becoming more easy to locate in bottles. It’s well worth the effort to find!
