Raspberry AF - Saint Arnold Brewing

The Second Beer of Christmas 2018 is Raspberry AF from Saint Arnold Brewing.

Summary

• Appearance: Cherry 7-Up color with light pink foam, a little hazy
• Aroma: Lightly sour, fruity
• Taste: Tart, a touch of acid, raspberries
• Feel: Light body, crisp carbonation, refreshing

Stats

• Brewer: Saint Arnold Brewing
• Location:  Houston, Texas
• Website: https://www.saintarnold.com/
• Fruit: Raspberry
• Style: Berliner Weisse
• Alcohol Content: 3.6%

Epic Brewing Co. - Brainless Raspberries

For the Seventh Beer of Christmas (New Year's Eve!,) I found a great replacement for that flute of champagne you're considering.

Epic Brewing
Brainless Raspberries

I have never been a fan of champagne. I know, some of you will think that's crazy but that's just me. On New Year's I will typically drink the obligatory flute of champagne, but I think tonight I'll simple fill that glass with another serving of Brainless Raspberries. It's a tart, sweet, and fruity bubblicious brew that would be at home in a pint glass or champagne flute.

The glass looked like a dark, fizzy glass of Cherry 7-Up as I pour out of the 12 ounce can. A loose cluster of large bubbles formed on the top of the beer, but quickly dissipated. In fact, it was gone by the time I finished taking my pictures. However, like champagne, it continued to bubble and fizz a bit as I drank to the bottom of the glass.

The predominant smell is, of course, raspberries. It reminds me a bit of a lightly sweetened compote: mostly tart but a bit of sweet. Yeast bread dough comes through, too.

Raspberries are the taste. It starts out sweet and finishes tart. There's also a big bubblegum flavor. It makes me think of Hubba Bubba from back when I was in high school and I chewed bubble gum all the time. The flavor rounds out with a bit of yeast, vanilla, and orange rind. I found it interesting that the flavor overrode and hid the high alcohol content. I barely noticed the 9.7% ABV.

The mouthfeel is interesting. This is when the champagne replacement hit me. After each drink, there was a refreshing wash of carbonation throughout my whole mouth leaving a lightly astringent sensation.

Fruit beers are a nice change of pace once in a while, but they'll never be my go-to beer. However, I could see myself going back to this one now and then to break up my typical porter/stout line-up.

Stats
Brewer: Epic Brewing Company
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Website: http://www.EpicBrewing.com/
Style: Fruit / Vegetable Beer
Alcohol Content: 9.70% ABV
Interesting Note: Founders David Cole and Peter Erickson started business together in 1992 as an aquaculture company. When Utah's beer laws became more relaxed in 2008, the pair started a craft brewery.

Brouwerij Lindemans - Framboise

For the First Beer of Christmas, Belgium gave to me a drink brewed with raspberr-err-ies.

Brouwerij Lindemans
Framboise

I admit that for several years I avoided lambics. Sour beer, often made with fruit, just never appealed to me. Don't make the mistake I made - jump in and try one.

As you can see in the picture, the beer pours up a beautiful, deep ruby red glass with thick head of fine pink bubbles which quickly dissolved to a wispy cap. Moderate pink lacing clung to the glass as I drank.

A few months ago, my wife and I ate at a French bakery while on vacation. We finished up with a raspberry tart and coffee. The Framboise has a sweet, almost syrupy, and tart aroma that is almost exactly what I remember the French raspberry tart smelling like. There is almost no alcohol scent, but with the rather low 2.5% alcohol content, that's not surprising.

The feel is light and crisp with a champagne-like effervescence. It's extremely sweet and tart, like a Sour Punch Straw or Jolly Rancher. The puckering reaction lasts just long enough for you to put the glass down before you want to pick it back up for another drink.

This would be a great after-dinner drink or dessert replacement during the holidays. But remember to bring a cork screw along with your bottle opener as these Belgian treats are capped and corked.

Stats
Brewer: Brouwerij Lindemans
Location: Vlezenbeek, Belgium
Website: http://www.lindemans.be/start/home/en (English version ... French and Dutch are available if you want them)
Style: Lambic (Fruit)
Alcohol Content: 2.5% ABV
Interesting Note: In the late 1800s, the Lindemans family owned a farm, which produced barley and wheat, and brewed lambics (with the barley and wheat) during the winter when there were fewer chores around the farm. By the 1930s, the brewing outpaced the farming and the farming side was closed down. Over time, different styles (sour cherry, black currant, apple, peach, and, of course, raspberry) were added to the lineup.

New Belgium Brewing – Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale

For the Seventh Beer of Christmas, we got a sweet treat.

New Belgium is one of my favorite breweries. Any time I see a new beer from New Belgium (or Shiner or Saint Arnold), I put it into my shopping basket. I was excited to find this one prominently displayed at World Market. It was the first beer we grabbed.

This brown ale creates a beautiful brown glass with just a hit of red. Sort of like the tinge of red that a cherry coke has. The head foams up to a relatively thin cap, but once it thins out, it remains as a thin cap atop the beer. The mild, pleasant bouquet includes raspberries, a bit of a floral essence, and a touch of vanilla. There’s a sweetness to smell that comes to life rather strongly in the first taste.

The sweet taste slams you pretty hard at first. Given that beers lean towards the bitter, more than just a malty sweetness tends to stick out and this one is well beyond just malty sweet. There’s a chocolaty taste, too. It’s a little bit like a raspberry filled Valentine’s Day chocolate.

The medium body holds the carbonation but also allows the sweetness to hang around and each drink finishes like an over syruped Coca-Cola.

Good? Yes. A favorite beer? No. This was nice to try, but I’ll probably only buy this again if I’m planning to share it with friends at a beer tasting (which usually happens during homebrew days).

Stats
Brewer: New Belgium Brewing
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Website: http://www.NewBelgium.com
Style: Frambozenbier
Alcohol Content: 6.5% ABV
Interesting Note: Last year I mentioned a number of interesting tidbits about New Belgium when I reviewed their Abbey beer. To add to that, New Belgium is an environmentally friendly brewer.  Their website runs on wind power.  And every summer they host a Bike-In Cinema and donate the proceeds to a local non-profit.