Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

2003 vintage. Pours a nice reddish color with a medium sized white head. The aroma is a strong sour cherry aroma with lots of funkiness behind it. The mouthfeel is medium to thin with good carbonation for this style--not too highly carbonated. The taste is a big sour fruit taste with plenty of vinuous notes, heavy oak, and herbal flavors as well.

Bottled 2001, Pours a pinkish red hue with a fizzy this white head, almost like a soda. Nose full of dry grass, berries, and old damp wood funkiness. The brightness lights up my tongue with a sharp deep sour pucker with notes vinegar, reduced red wine, fresh raspberries and blackberries and some funky farmhouse hay, grass, and wood. The depth of the funk really builds as the beer warms with notes of sour hard cheese, and horseblanket. The fruit turns tart in the aftertaste and a residual sour dryness is left behind. Delicious.

This was an amazing treat!! Just as mspindler said it, I felt like I was back in my Grandmothers kitchen!

2006 Bottle shared with NickTheElder at the Back Abbey. Pours a murky purplish red with a cotton candy head. Aroma is like a slap in the nose. TONS of funk, barnyard, barrel, and some red wine. But under all that is this awesome sweet fruitiness that NickTheElder described as his grandmothers berry cobbler. Flavor is just as big and complex, starting with a nice sharp sourness and a blast of raspberry and funk, then smoothing out nicely and finishing with oak and red wine. Finish is dry and clean and doesn’t hang around for long. Medium bodied with not too much carbonation. Better than I thought a framboise could be.

2003, pretty awesome stuff. These things can age for 20 years like they say on the bottle. great aroma, sourness is strong but once the palate intigrates it’s perfect. super finish. lots of wood / oak and funk. cool part was the last bit of sludge smelled and tasted exactly like a fresh rasberry. outstanding beer with lots of upside as it ages I think. bought a while back at Holiday in escondiz for $26

Bottle 2006: Bright red pour with adense pink ring of head. Outrageously funky aroma! Cork, cobweb, horse blanket, leather, barnyard, tannic notes, acidic, tart raspberry notes are detectable under the wild fermentation greatness. Crisply acidic body- fairly low carbonation. Lots of funky wildness in the flavor as well. Farmhouse, leather, sharp citric acidity, some sulfuric character as well. The raspberry presence remains tart & harmonious with the base lambic. Some old woody notes, with a light tannic character that leads into the clean finish. Complex, funky, sour, stellar!

750ml corked bottle. Vintage 2006, BB December 2018. Served lightly chilled in pilsner flute. Pours a vibrant purple-tinged ruby body, slight haze, with a couple of fingers worth of dense pink mousse. Plenty of fruit comes through on the nose; tart raspberry, ripe strawberry, some red plum, citrus rind, with an unmistakeable touch of typical Cantillon vinegar and funk. Particularly woody/oak, more like a young dry red wine than other examples i’ve come across. As expected, a big acid component on the palate straight up, bit more balanced with the fruit this time around. Mouthfilling texture, lively carbonation, very lengthy yet dry. Delicious fruits on the body; raspberry and strawberry jam, redcurrant jelly, vinous plum and blackberry, grapefruit and lemon cuts through leading onto vinegar and citric acidity. Hay and subtle horse towards the finish. Ends with big lingering acid, tannic and oaky. Would have to put this on par with the best fruit lambics i’m yet to try. Certainly the better of the raspberry(framboise) i’ve come across.

750ml bottle of 2006 vintage. Poured opaque cherry red, like fruit punch,with a thin pink head that quickly dissipates. Aroma was of vinegar, raspberry, some strawberry sweetness, hay, raw wheat, woody vanilla, citrus, and funky hop and yeast aroma. Flavor was sweet and tart grapefruit-raspberry, sweet citrus around the sides of the tongue, tart strawberry fructose, raw wheat, subtle funky yeast, and a strong tart finish. Very bubbley champagne like carbonation, very strong and enjoyable flavor, but a lot of vinegar on the palate.