Jacobins Framboise Max
Omer Vander Ghinste

 

Beautiful deep garnet color with golden highlights. There is a pinkish cast to the white cap that's rather attractive and it's rare that I ever mention that color as being attractive.

Rich raspberry aroma which retains the essence of ripe fruit. That's it, just raspberry, but it sings that one note beautifully and holds it for a long time.

Taste on entry is full raspberry supported by prickly carbonation. Not an overly sweet jammy sort of raspberry, rather a rich, ripe tartly balanced whack of fully mature just picked ripe fruit.

Medium texture for the type with balancing carbonation.

I'm generally not a fan of one note fruit beers that are heavy handed so it's a pleasure to come across one like this that's sophisticated, polished, fully flavored, yet beautifully balanced between tart and sweet. Good brunch stuff.

 

 

Poured from the bottle into a pint glass. The appearance is a pink color with a large pink tinged head. sweet before the finish. The aroma is a very sweet fruit base. The taste mirrors the aroma and has a slight beer flavor in the finish. A thoroughly enjoyable lambic.

 

 

call me crazy, but i thought this was pretty excellent. i mean, at least is has a true lambic base, unlike others, so i can forgive its overly intense sweet before the finish. its hazy pink in color, definitely looks like it spent some time maturing in wood, and has a great big, barley pink bubbly head, very belgian, and nice to see a lively fruited lambic. the nose is sweet fruit before beer, with a nice tartness from the lacto, and a mellowness. the berries provide some tartness too, which blends in well, but the overall impression of the fruit in both aroma and flavor is that its intensity is appreciated, but its sweetness is a little too much. thinking about the lou pepe beers, and seeing this one as an inferior product, albeit still a very very drinkable one, and one much more attainable. it really is aided by its high carbonation, and if this is the kind of beer you like, its outstanding. hard to hold it to a cantillon standard, that wouldnt be reasonable. its very well made, the fruit is lively and authentic, and although i wish for a little more sour to come though, i still really enjoyed this one. basically juice at this abv.