Upstream Honey Raspberry Ale

On tap at the brewpub. Pours a pale, cloudy, pink grapefruit juice color with a thin whitish head. The nose is a mellow raspberry that leans towards the sweet versus tart/sour side of the flavor/aroma spectrum, and it is devoid of the soapy extract note I’ve gotten from many other brewpub raspberry brews. Light bodied and thin with super-soft (almost flat) carbonation and zero finish. This is a super clean and quaffable fruit beer. The flavor follows the nose with not much more going on. I detect no honey whatsoever, but what this brew lacks in flavor and/or complexity it makes up for in drinkability; not a bad raspberry brew.

Tap @ brewpub: Cloudy pink lemonade color with a white head and sticky lacing. Light raspberry aroma with a little tang. It’s ok for a fruit beer and not too sweet like some.

on tap downtown. Looks like a zinfindel with a head. Sweet raspberry aroma, but not sickeningly so. Extract brewed, but not awful, as so many are. good, unexpected, hop and malt presence. best-tasting burps ever.

On tap, Legacy brew pub. Raspberry syrup smell reminiscent of a lesser framboise lambic; some malty bread in the aroma too. White fizzy head with ok lacing, orange amber in the glass. Raspberry syrup flavor is nice intensity, leavened wth some wheat malt; the Munich malt and corn flavors are strong in the finish, and I didn’t like them. I didn’t notice any honey in the flavor, but it’s a nice level of sweetness. I was expecting a weaker beer, but this turned out to be quite flavorful. The flavor, however, always seemed synthetic and candied. Not bad, but definitely not good.

On tap at the original brewpub. Light yellow in color. Very fizzy. Weak to no body. Faint aroma of chemical raspberries. I refuse to belive that there is more than a tablespoon of honey per gallon of this ale prior to fermentation. A watery beer typical of this joint. I’m ashamed that I ordered this tonight when I should have just been drinking Ebeneezer.