Iron Hill Framboise de Hill

Formerly brewed at Iron Hill Wilmington
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Wilmington, Delaware USA

Big thanks to the always-generous Todd for sharing this one. Another smallish bottle for this pricey beer! Anyways, this one had a murky pour with lots of yeast and sediment in there, and precious little carbonation, more or less completely still. The heavy color reminded me of those chemical rivers in Willy Wonka (the original). Oak comes through in the nose with just the faintest whiff of tart berry. Thankfully there’s a bit more fruit character here than this leads on, but the beer tastes tired, if that makes any sense.

Thanks to Todd for sharing this at the sexual chocolate grand tasting. Muddy pink pour with absolutely no head. Tart oaky aroma. Very unique flavor. Leather, band aid, raspberry, and oak. Another weird flavor that I just couldn’t pin point

Thanks Oldstylecubfan for sharing. Pours a deep reddish pink with zero head. No amount of coaxing yields any kind of head. The nose is mildly tart and acidic, raspberry shows up more here than the cherry does in the kriek, some oak comes through, more acetic character here as well. The flavor is mildly tart, raspberry comes through, then I get popcorn/diacetyl, grainy. The fruit character is better in this one when compared to the kriek but the beer has other problems.

Iron Hill Wilmington: Total 2.9
6/3/5/4/11
The cork pulls out with hardly a whisper of a pop. Not surprisingly the beer pours quite flat, with not head, not even a few lonely bubbles. The beer is a deeply red-purple stained color that shows a hazy, raspberry red color when held up to the light. The aroma is scented strongly with raspberries, which are noticeable as soon as I start to pour this beer. Sweet raspberry fruit notes definitely dominate, at times I get a hint of lactic acid, perhaps a touch of mustiness, but really that could all be in my mind; the nose is all about the raspberry character.

The beer feels fairly flat as it first hits my tongue, it picks up a hint of a prickle though as it rolls across the tongue. The beer is much more sour and dry than I was expecting; the sweet raspberry aromatics had me expecting some initial sweetness, but my first sip was all sour. The sourness has notes of lactic acid up front, but finishes with a light burn of acetic acid that gets more pronounced as the beer warms up. The acetic acid actual causes a bit of burn as it slides down my throat. This has flavors of sour raspberries, but without the sweetness it is hard to realize just how much raspberry flavor is packed into this beer. There is a touch of sweetness here towards the finish that accentuates the fruity raspberry notes, but it can be hard to notice under the assault of acidity.

The acetic acid in this can be just a bit too much at times, even if it isn’t overwhelming similar to vinegar; there is enough here that it makes it very hard to drink or even sip. This is best in very small doses.

Bottle sampled at the Woodshop Quad tasting. Flavors of Rasberries and some vinegar. Very acetic. But decent.

750mL bottle tried at at Woodshop Quad. My favorite of the night, along with La Folie 2005 and Beatification ph1. Wow, wow. Very sour. Cloudy dark amber color. Very fruity and good. Lots of acetic acid. Easy to drink. Excellent.

good but a bit vinagery and not super complex as other fruit lambics...but still fairly nice....

Bottle at woodshop quad. Pours reddish with no head. Nose is funky and tart. Taste is sweet with a big punch of razz, nice!