New Belgium Frambozen

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

On tap at the brewery. Brownish pink body with pink head. Strong raspberry aroma. Slighly sweet body with a tart finish and well done raspberry.

Dark maroon to black pour with a dirty beige head with a pinkish hue. Smell is very nice. Fresh raspberries, a touch of tartness, and light brown ale like maltiness. Flavor is surprisingly nice. Very lightly tart and sweet fresh raspberry flavor, good rich mouthfeel and maltiness. Brown ale flavor in the finish a touch, and some sweet/tart raspberries in the after taste along with a hint of chocolate. Kind of like a raspberry truffle, but never cloying. Easily my favorite fruit beer, and a new Winter favorite.

On tap at the brewery. First of all, this was much better than I remember last years being. It looked beautiful in the glass, a deep brown color with ruby highlights, and a nice pink/tan head that produced great lacing. Aroma of raspberries and some chocolate. Great taste of chocolate colored raspberries accompany the malt profile and a slightly tart finish. I don’t know if it is just a difference in batches, the fact that it was on tap, or what, but this was a lot better than I remember.

355 ml bottle. Pours a nice mahogany with ruby highlights and a slightly rosy off-white head. Sweet, rather intense, raspberry up-front in the nose with a malty background. Medium body with an initial semi-sweet berry tartness over a solid malt profile. Tartness lingers in a lasting finish.

Bottle. Poured with a rich full two finger head. Initial smell reveals much of the flavor, as it has a strong raspberry presence. I honestly am a little taken back by the taste, as it reminds me of a raspberry chocolate cake. Finishes drier than expected.

Pours medium brown with a nice slightly pink head. Aroma of raspberries. Flavor is that of a brown ale with raspberry tartness in the background. Slight harsh bitterness in the finish. Can’t decide whether this jibes or not.

Deep reddish brown color; small creamy head. I found the aroma to be somewhat subdued...the raspberry is there, but it doesn’t overpower you, and is quite pleasant; yeast and bread accents are also there. Flavor is raspberry up front, then turns into a malty, chocolatey mix. I swear there are even some small seeds in this beer; maybe that’s just the authenticity of the raspberry coming through. A bit watery in the aftertaste (and back to the raspberry flavor), this is a very enjoyable beer that, in my opinion, is a good fruit beer for those who are normally not fans of fruit beers. Not cloying in the least, the weak body is the only negative to this fine offering from the folks at NB.

Bottle. Purplish brown color, khaki head with a tinge of pink. Aroma of huge raspberry, bread, chocolate. Taste is of raspberry chambord (first liquor I ever had), oranges, roasty malts, yeast. Finish is pretty wet with a sour note. The raspberry taste is affrontive at first, but once you get used to it, the beer drinks like any other. Very nice.