New Belgium Frambozen

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

bottle thanks to jimbowood for this one. pours a deep ruby red. with a thin slighty pink head. aroma is raspberries and a little sour. taste is sour raspberries. alittle sweet. smooth and drinkable mouthfeel.

(Bottle) I like this more than most fruit beers. Color is gorgeous, aroma is generous and caramely sweet. Fruit and beer flavor elements are better blended and balanced than most fruit beers I’ve tasted.

A thin head covered a tawny red body from the bottle. Aroma is thin, with medicinal notes that over power some fruit aroma. A thin easy going palate coats the tongue with bitterness, where tartness would have been prefered. Medicinal notes turned me off from this beer, but they did mellow as it at in the glass.

12oz bottle: Pours a very dark red/brown color, medium sized off-white/light tan color, average diminishing, average lacing. Aroma of semi-sweet raspberries, hops. Strong taste of raspserry, tart, light sugary aftertaste. Sweet, not very complex flavor, but refreshing.

From a bottle into a snifter. Beer pours a clear, dark very red amber with a small, pale pink, mostly diminishing head that leaves behind a tiny bit of lacing. The aroma makes good on the promise of raspberry—those notes are moderate, sweet and inviting, but they’re tucked behind the other aromas. Overall, the aroma is subtle, and beside raspberry, includes moderate malty notes of caramel, toasted grain and a light hoppy note of damp (and perhaps mildewy) hay/straw. The flavor begins moderately sweet and lightly bitter and fades into a short, lightly bitter-moderately sour finish. The body is light-to-medium, the texture is watery and the carbonation is average. Overall, the beer part of the equation isn’t that engaging, but the fruit and the beer are well melded.

I’m not really in to fruit beers, but I decided to get it purely on the basis of holiday spirit. However, as you can see by the score I gave it, I was very surprisingly impressed. Give this one a shot whether you are a fruit beer drinker or not.

Raspberries, caramel in the aroma… .. Ruby red, clear. Tan head that dissipates. Good lacing… … Tart start, sweet, malty middle, and fruity finish.. .. medium body, moderate carbonation.. .. Tasty fruity beer. Has a decidely belgian character about it, with lots of tasty raspberry notes

(bottle 2005) Faint raspberry aroma. Deep brown with almost no head. Flavor is sweet malt and raspberry. No hops. I didn’t notice any yeastiness. Almost like drinking a soda pop.