New Belgium Frambozen

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

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.

pours dark red-brown with little to no head. smells like raspberries and malty. tastes sweet and malty, raspberries. very enjoyable, I look forward to this beer all year!

Appearance: A ruby color, transparent, good carbonation. Head is an off white (pinkish) with low retention, and sticky lacing. Aroma: Fruit, raspberries, tart, and malt. Flavor: malt, raspberries with a tart/dry finish. Palate: light/medium bodied, syrupy and effervescent with an astringent finish. Kinda like your workin’ man’s lambic.

Bottle Pours a clear dark Mahogany with a modest light brown head. Nice lacing as well. Aroma is the typical brown ale dark malts light hops and there is the Raspberry as well. Not too strong and compliments nicely. Flavor has more of the Ras than I expected. Not too sweet goes very well with the other dark malty flavors. Quite nice. Feel is very smooth and heavy. Quite soft carbonation and a woody/Ras trailer. Yum !

Redish color, white head goes away quickly. The aroma is pretty subtle. Some maltiness and maybe some raspberry, I expected the smell to be more pronounced. (It is not as subtle now that the beer has warmed a bit. In fact the raspberry comes through a lot more now that it is at 48 degrees.) The flavor is balanced between malty and hoppy, though those flavors transform into a nice, easy raspberry flavor. The raspberry taste stays with you . My bottle indicates the Alc% as 6.5%, but you would never guess it. It also says you should taste it at 50 degrees, they are right, it is a much better beer that way. This would be great with a chocolate dessert.