New Belgium Frambozen

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

Red with a slightly pine head. A nice vibrant and enticing fruitiness in the nose with the malt base barely noticable and the raspberries taking everything over. Light in body, faintly hopped with notes of raspberries, fruits and a touch of chocolate and caramel. An ok brew.

Dark rudy, cherrywood color with a moderate beige/pink head that settles to a small lid and isles of lace. Hearty malt and rich raspberry aromas. Raspberries from start to finish with this one. Very much like a roman nougat, with lightly candied fruit and dark chocolate. Toasty malts comes in the late middle to finish. Fairly thin in feel. I like it in an after dinner sort of quaff.

Bottle, thanks to Sham. Sweet, tart raspberry pie aroma with lots of chocolate malts in the nose as well. Smells luscious. Transparent mahogany amber color with a tan head and some light pink notes. Starts a mild sour raspberry flavor with slight sweetness. Finishes very roasted and malty with choco-coffee notes. I would like a bit more tartness in this beer to start.

Very appealing color with a faint, yet pleasing aroma. The initial taste is not quite right - not sure why - but it quickly rounds out into an interesting melange of ripe fruit, chocolate, toasty malt and sweet herbs. The palate is remarkable, a wonderful lingering bouquet to savor.

Pours a very dark red/brown with a small light tan head that leaves a thin sheet of lacing on the glass. Aroma has a ton of sweet raspberry, a hint of dark chocolate. Taste starts with a quick hint of dark, almost burnt, chocolate, then follows through to a sweet raspberry finish, with only a mild sourness.

on the strength of the solid NB name, i took a walk on the wild side and picked up a sixer of this beer-- a beer within a category that -admittedly- i don’t generally fancy. now, shoot, i can’t remember the official name of this category. c’mon, help me, what is it? oh yeah, fruity shit. this particular fruity shit looks fairly nice, the burnt ruby color of a wet and rotting cedar log, yet without any floaties or clouding opacity. the head was to the beer what fuzz is to a peach: that is, a soft continuous covering, but only as thick as a playing card. when you sniff a packet of raspberry koolaid, ’aroma’ is not the word that comes to mind; that sounds too refined. likewise, this isn’t what you’d call an aroma-- this just smells like powdered raspberry flavoring. to be expansive, i could add maybe red licorice, and to be REALLY generous-- as if the head brewer was right here and i had to schmooze a bit-- i’d fake an impressed tone and say "mmm, some black forest cake kind of mingling baked malts and raspberry jam and chocolates. (then i’d look away and laugh my ass off). seriously, this stuff does little for me. the flavor bites hard in way that suggests bottled lemon juice bitterness. in bodily heft, it’s not substansial, anorexic even. watery raspberry tart and the tinny taste of a metal ice cube tray. bleh. anybody want to finish this for me?

Toasty malts, light cocoa and some light raspberry in the aroma. Dark crimson color with a medium pinkish head. Some wheat and toasty malt flavors, rather dry, sublte raspberries near the finish. More bitter than most fruit beers. Not bad, the finish is a little off though.

I don’t normally like fruit beers much, but this one I bought because I wanted to give the fruit beer genre another shot, and I trust New Belgium to not do me wrong. It’s a very attractive beer - pours ruby red. Not much of a noticable head though. Lovely raspberry aromas with a little bit of roasted malt aroma too. I’m liking that this is a brown ale, not an amber. Noticable raspberry tastes, the flavor is not one-dimensional - it has depth. The brown ale flavors shine nicely, and there is decent balance. Finish is a bit toasty, not sweet. If you have had bad experiences with fruit beers in the past, give this one a try. It might surprise you.