Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

2003 bottling: Brilliant scarlet with a slight chill haze. Tall and milky, light rose collar of foam. Intense nose of rust, flowers, sulfur, and stinky brett. Fresh essence of mashed raspberries with dried leather and overripe peach pit hints. Feathery fluff to the carbonation. Slightly gritty texture. Exquisite raspberry flavor immediately arrives to balance the bustling tartness. Intensely dry, throughout, with a firm musty oak stamp soon grabbing foothold, deepening the tartness and adding more flavor depth. Understated, but masterfully utilized zippy brett character, couples with an herbal yeast flare which lends more dryness. Slowly developing scratchy mineral texture is curbed by a filmy maraschino cherry-like softness. Subtle notes of leather and medicine. Continual irony, dried apricot acidity bolsters the juiciness and lengthens the remarkably bright raspberry notes. Ends persistently juicy, yet briskly dry and acidic, with a shockingly harmonious interplay of brett, oak, and the vaguest touch of Pilsner malt that lingers long past its departure. The eptiome of balanced complexity. One of the most elegant beers in the world.

Copenhagen beer marathon 2004. 2002 edition, Red color, Sweet light acid raspberry aroma, medium sour dry taste, full body, dry finish.

I believe this was a 2001 edition, sampled at the Belgian Beerfest. Brilliant bright red with no head. Sharp acidic and citric aroma, low raspberry profile. Sharp sourness, the raspberries take a back seat to the gueuze here, creating a more refined sourness. If anything, a bit one-dimensional. Absolutely dry finish. Oh glorious Lou Pepe, if only you didn’t cost $30 bottle...

2002 Edition Bottle. Raspberry sour musty farmhouse aroma. Hazy fire engine red color with minimal head. Sour to start, but not overwhelming like the Rose de Gambrius. Sweet raspberry flavors come through in the finish. A much better experience with Cantillon than my first...

bottle. bright ruby color... lip smacking... playfully puckering... sour rasberries... a great lambic... light, fun, makes me wanna say "weeeeee!!!"... but this could be because this was one of the last brews i had at the fest

Sweetish raspberry nose, nice sourness. Light reddish body, small head. Very sour flavor, but nice sweetness from the fruits.

Bottle at Copenhagen Beermarathon 2004: Pours Deep red. Aroma is intense rasberries, very slightly malty, and a generous amount of the farmyard smell from the brettanomyces. Taste is sour, acidic, dominated by rasberries. As with all the other Cantillons i’ve had, is this a very good lambic

2001 Vintage:Pinkish orange color with a lightly pinkish beige head. Strong sour gueuze-like aroma with lemon, raspberry and wood. Very nice sour flavor with lemon, sour raspberry, hay and vinegar. Very dry with tiny, spritzy bubbles and a very dry finish. Very enjoyable!