Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

From a bottle poured a hazy purplish color with lots of head. Nice tart raspberry flavor with a lingering funky finish.

On tap at the Map Room. 2006. Tart, funky acid and raspberrys. A bit cheesy, but nicely sour and tart. Wheaty, silky, and straw-like. Pours a vibrant, clouded raspberry jam red. Rim of rose. Raging citric acid, french raspberry jam, and searing lactic acid. Bright, fresh, flashing acidity with clean backends. For such a funky nose, the raspberry melds with the acid and the alcohol for really graceful detail.

2003 bottle, aged five years. The lightly hazy, pinkish-red body shows a small, swirly, off-white film at the surface. Very little spotty lacing marks the glass. The beautiful nose shows notes of both fresh, ripe, semi-sweet raspberries and dry, aged, tart ones. Mildly musty farmhouse yeast notes are accompanied by dry French oak and ample citric acidity. Flavors show more of the same, an excellent balance between sweet and tart raspberries on full display. There is citric intensity, along with dry, dusty, tannic elements, but the soft oak and subtle fruity sweetness are enough to smooth things out nicely. Medium bodied and dry, the sourness really hints the glands in the back of the throat on the way down. This is a masterful beer, and it is probably the best framboise lambic I have had to date.

2003 draft at Brouwers Big Wood Seattle 2008. Sweet nose of a fruit roll-up. Rosey pink body with a raspberry-pink head unlike anything ive ever seen. Way more tart than the sweet aroma suggested, and the rich fruitiness and sweet are nicely topped by a wealth of sour. Well balanced, very refined and dryish finish. Remarkable.

2003 version, on draft at Brouwer’s Big Wood 08. Pours a reddish copper with - no joke - a light pink head. The aroma is a burst of fruit, though slightly artificial – like fruit roll-ups. There’s a great tartness showing through, but on the whole it’s very sweet. The flavor brings the tartness to the forefront, making the fruit seem far less artificial. Like not-quite-ripe raspberries were crushed in a glass – I’ve never had a beer that tasted so much like real fruit. Just enough sweetness to offset the tart raspberries. A treat, for sure.

Purple haze with light head. Aroma of sour fruit. Full-bodied, cheek-sucking driness. Superb.

[Bottle] 2005 vintage. Pours a clear pinkish red with a very small whitish head. Aroma is tart raspberries and a bit of barnyard funk and mustiness. The flavor is extremely tart and sour, a touch of acidity, loaded with fresh, tart berries, and some funkiness. Leaves a great sour raspberry finish that lasts quite a while. Awesome.

Un altro splendido lambic alla frutta di Cantillon, la Lou Pepé Framboise è meno intensa e più beverina della kriek, ma nell’aroma di frutta fresca e nel sapore acidino e vinoso si rende un ottimo aperitivo pronto a soddisfare i palati più scettici ed esigenti. Quasi. cul