Girardin Framboise

Brewed by Brouwerij Girardin
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Sint Ulriks-Kapelle, Belgium

(Bottled. 03/2006) IMHO, this is the best of the Girardin lambic products (excluding the usually exceptional black label gueuze). Perhaps it is just because it goes so darn well with chocolate mousse. A big rasperry aroma with all the hints of the barnyard one craves from a lambic lacking any of the diacetyl notes that were predominant in other recently sampled Girardin products. A great, hazy, pink appearance. Wonderful notes of rasperry in the flavor with understated brett and lactic notes that work to accetunate a complex maltiness. A wonderfull example overall. (03/2007). More notes ... this time around, even the Framboise was a diacetyl bomb -- in both the aroma and the taste! Still goes well with chocolate, but it’s rating definitely came down ...

Three months over time, I don’t know what effect this has on a beer like this. The colour is light red-pink, with a small pink head. Sweet-sour raspberry aroma.Full bodyn with a light sour touch in it. Finish is rather sour with some sharper touches. At the end lasts a dry and pepery finish and some cork touches. The raspberry don(t come back in the taste. Afterall not a bad one.

I have a strong penchant for raspberries, so any brewer advertising the fruit generally gets my attention. After a long day walking around Amsterdam, I decided to enjoy something easy at In de Wildeman. When I say ’easy’, I mean in no way to insult Girardin, but generally fruit lambics are less challenging in complexity and that was just what I was looking for. The pour yielded a clear red tea color with a light film of white cream dissolving to a milky ring around the flute. To the nose, fresh raspberries stand out - an aroma of real fruit not syrup. Cherries and strawberries are also apparent and together with the raspberries vividly remind of a fruity yoghurt. Light brown sugar provides some balance and additional sweetness. The flavor is straightforward but delicious with almost the sole taste of raspberry jam and strawberries. As it wraps around the tongue there is a slight syrupy texture that smoothens out on the back of the palate while the perfect carbonation tingles at the tip. Some sourness produces a smiling finish that could have been more pronounced. Refreshing and flavorful.

[LCRBM] raspberry, dusty yeast smell, only slightly acidic, leather. nice body, tart finish, good framboise.

Bottle from Utobeer, Attractive scarlet colour with pink lasting head. Intense raspberry jam aroma. Expect it to be sicly sweet, but the hit of sourness that comes in later, balances it. Good integrated fruit. Real fruit flavour, not artificial. You can really taste the pips on this. Some vanilla raspberry ripple ice cream-esque. Wonderful quality fruit lambic

Red color; huge pink head, rather explosive bottle. Aroma of mature raspberries, sweet. Sour and quite astringent, delicate fruitness. The final is too bitter and astringent. Not impressive.

Poured from the bottle, a nice clear pinkish red with an impressive bubbly but thick head. Very strong fruity aroma, quite sweet as well. Raspberries not too strong and nicely combines with the sourness. Kind of syrupy, but offset by the carbonation. A bit different to other Lambic beers I have tasted.

Fruity nose, yeasty and sour. Red rudy color with a lathery head. Raspberry taste, of course, but not too juice-like. Light chalky dry end. Soft carb and crisp texture. Refreshing and a nice departure from the more common Kriek beers.