La Choulette Framboise

Bottled. Rubeyish amber colour, small head. Aroma is raspberry, not much else. Flavour is raspberries along with wood and some mild sweetness from brown sugar or syrup. Not too impressed.

Bottle@Home. Artificial raspberry aroma. Red color, beige head, good lace. Sweet, raspberry, light bitter, some malts, hint of veggies. Syrupy. Not for me.

I’m a sucker for fruit beers, especially classy looking ones like La Choulette’s Framboise. But I can be a harsh critic once the beer is in my posession. That’s why, despite my starry-eyed eagerness to drink this framboise, I maintain a cold and calculating approach. This fruit beer produces almost no head, but for a mere thin whisp of foam that congregates to the center of the glass. This is no visual problem though, as the brew is a deep cranberry juice red, making it quite striking with the texturization of carbonation. The aroma is strong, but not cloyingly sweet, as many fruit beers are apt to be. Hints of strawberry, cherry and even cranberry intoxicate the olfactory - what’s more, these scents are overwhelmingly natural, as if they were fruits fresh from the orchard. These aromas are moderate and tempered. That means they are subtle as they should be, but on the extreme negative, they might be a bit watered down smelling. Or maybe they’re just "juicy" smelling. That said, the flavor is unexpected. It’s much darker, exuding more dark cherries and their pits (sweet and low) than other framboise’s, where a bright and chipper fruitiness is emphasized. The bright and chipper is also what I expected here, simply because the aroma was bright and chippter too. But I find that this deeper sweetness, inching towards a malty, raspberry-chocolate flavor, is quite new and quite tasty. But I can’t help that it is also odd. I’m growing accustomed to it though, and the more I do, the more I realize I really like this dark approach to framboise flavor.

750 ml corked and caged bottle poured a hazy reddish amber with a lasting amber head. Aromas of red raspberry, cookie and light spice. Palate was light bodied and crisp with a lightly tart finish. Flavors of raspberry, cookie and a hint of spice with a crisp lingering lightly tart fruity finish.

Great summer Beer!

750 ml. bottle corked and caged, purchased at Lukas Liquor in KCMO. Pour is reddish brown with a 2 inch off white head, which some faint pink highlights. Aroma is raspberry, though a fairly thickly sweet raspberry, more akin to a jelly or syrup. The taste is the raspberries, though they come across with a bit more fruit this time. The base bierre de garde has a nice body, and some decent mineral earthiness to hold up the fruit. Finish is dry and clean. Overall, a moderately refreshing beer.