Bethlehem Brew Works Framboise

I have to admit I was slightly impressed with this. I really just expected this to be another Raspberry ale checked off with a name of Framboise. I was pleased with the color first and foremost, but some acid in the nose, followed by some sour funk in my glass, with some very rustic dark fruits in the finish. A tad bit on the lighter side and could use some tweaking, but not bad at all.

Huge acidic flavor with a mellow raspberry influence and a decent amount of funk.

In bottles at Sour Sunday, Triple Rock. Very pleasing color. A slight hint of DMS in the nose, but not unpleasant to taste. Very spritzy. Lemony/citrus acids predominate in the taste profile, but there is definitely some berry notes in the background. Very much in the lambic style, this beer finished very dry and was on the light-to-medium bodied side of the palate.

Draft at brewpub. It has a sharp acidic punch which quickly subdues. Descent fresh raspberry flavor. I’d drink it again. I love to see brewpubs branching out and doing lambics.

(Draught) Pours a murky reddish golden with a small white head. Aroma of raspberry, earthiness, mustiness, cheese, and grain. Flavor of sour raspberries, earth, and caramel.

Sampled GABF 2008
The beer has a murky, light amber color and is topped by a white colored head. This has a woody, almost grassy nose to it that is clearly derived from raspberries but sot of accentuating all the wrong notes. Other aromas of musty cellars, light notes of overly ripe, funky cheese and a lot of malt character; more grassy notes, but grain this time as well as a solid cracker like aroma.

The flavor is tart up front, though not overly so and is actually quite light if this was trying to be a Lambic. The body is quite thin and watery and is lacking in the body that I would expect from a well made sour beer. Again there is lots of grain character here in the flavor, which does seem a bit out of place, but contributes notes of grassy grain and lots of cracker-like whole grain flavors. The raspberry flavor here is noticeable, but it is quite light and most definitely watered down. This definitely gets quite funky at times as I do believe this tastes like vomit. Unfortunately this is really not very good.

GABF 2008. A hazy dark gold pour with a malty, faintly raspberry aroma. Minimal funk & sourness there but malty. The body had much more tart fruit in it, but still very grainy for my tastes.

GABF’08. Pours a thick, dirty brown-ish, not what I expected. Aroma is very earthy, brown mud, a very thick malty aroma. Not really anything beer about it, no sourness, not bad though. Taste is a bit more sweet with some raspberry. But its still mainly this earthy, muddy brew. Nothing sour or lambic or anything of that sort. Still drinkable through.