Girardin Framboise
Brouwerij Girardin

 

 

 

Bright orange red, effervescent champagne carbonation. Persistent foam, with some lace to one side. Not quite as saturated in color as i’d hoped, cork is dated 2020. Topping up produces a meringue foam that looks like a macaron. Faint perceptible raspberry aroma, no funk to speak of.

Tart and tangy raspberry taste, a bit one note and seltzery, though moderately tart and not sweet like their Kriek. Fruity but restrained, the label states 150g of raspberries per liter. Light and refreshing, probably not unlike raspberry White Claw though. Very well carbed and feels carbonic and minerally like seltzer. Overall it’s decent, worth a try if you’re curious, but don’t expect much complexity.

Pours a slightly cloudy, ruby red coloration with no head, just a bit of lacing around the edges of the glass. Smells of sweet raspberry and not much else. Taste follows the nose, with a very sweet and jammy raspberry character and just a hint of earthy, musty oak notes and mild estery spice coming through as well. Very little tartness or funk to speak of here. Finishes quite sweet, with raspberry preserve and a mild musty earthiness lingering in the aftertaste. Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and carbonation. Honestly, this reminds me more of fizzy raspberry soda than a Lambic. Way too sweet and one-dimensional, with very little tartness or acidity and zero funk to speak of. Its one saving grace are some earthy, musty oak notes that add at least a little character to this, which just isn't enough though.

 

375ml bottle, 2015 cork, poured into a Brouwerij Girardin snifter glass. Enjoyed on 9.2.17, reviewed from Tasting Journal.

The beer pours a burgundy red color, garnet and ruby hues that is quite cloudy and opaque with a tall finger of off white head that has very good retention and yields spots of soapy lace. The aroma is good, raspberry jam, light pie spice, soft oak and a bit of tart leathery funk. The flavors are very sweet, lots of raspberry preserve, a hint of strawberry as well with a light funkiness, moderate earthiness with some musty oak and leather, light pie spices and a sweet finish of even more raspberry. The mouthfeel is nice, coating and creamy, some zippy carbonation with a dry finish that is lightly tart.

Verdict: A nice framboise from Girardin, perhaps a bit sweet for my liking and could use a more developed funk, but still an enjoyable raspberry beer that is easy to sip on.

 

I'm a big fan of Girardin gueuze but we don't get the framboise or kriek in America so I had to grab one of each to bring home from Belgium. The cork is marked EX 2017 so I assume this was a 2016 batch. Clear ruby red color, no head at all. Thick jammy raspberry aroma. It smells like raspberry preserves, very nice. Minerals in the flavor, sweet raspberries that aren't quite as heavy as the aroma. This only has the mildest tartness to it, sweet raspberry is the main flavor and seems to take over the base lambic. Not much funk or sour on this. Overall a perfect lambic for a hot day and possibly one to use when introducing people to fruit lambics. The label says it contains 150 grams of raspberries per liter of lambic which seems like quite a bit.

06/26/2017, in Bruges, Belgium.

A 375ml corked and caged bottle. The cork has the words Diam EX 2016, and the number 09 on it, which I think I’ve worked out to be Batch E, bottled in September 2015. Poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.

Appearance: A clear dark pinkish red colour with a very thin pink head that dissipates quickly while leaving some lacing.

Aroma: Raspberry jam with perhaps hints of grape juice.

Taste: Sour raspberries and grape juice to begin, followed by sweet-ish berries with hints of wood.

Mouthfeel: Crisp, light bodied with moderate carbonation.

Overall: Refreshing and nice to drink. Good balance between sour and sweet.

There's a few beers where I really like the heavy raspberry character, but usually I prefer pretty light raspberries (~4 or 5 out of 10 at most, would say this beer is a 4). Was right up my tastebud highway. Lambic character was yeah, great Girardin goose juice. (Beer had some funk, might have spent some time on a waterfowl's leg or two, I don't know).

 

Raspberry pink color. Light pink head. Lace.

This is a very mild framboise. Light in the raspberry/fruit category as well as the sour/tartness. It is easy to drink, but just not a lot of flavor her compared to the other ones.

 

 

 

37cl bottle. Clear ruby red pour with a short-lived pink head. Smells like raspberries and raspberry yoghurt. The taste is full of raspberries, raspberry jam and yoghurt, with no lambic funk present at all. Refreshing and delicious.

 

A- Poured from a 375ml into a few glasses for the 2000th review party with a orange-amber-red body; just stained with raspberry hue. A small frothy ring forms at the edges but no real head. Small drizzle and a few lacing spots.

S- Sweet berries, obviously raspberry, off the top with a musty fruity base behind them. Quite a departure from the Gueuze as this lacks much funk and lambic complexity. Showcases the berries with a bit of funk. Yogurt.

T- Similar to the aroma with berry focus and what seems like a young lambic base offering slight musty grapes, oak and lactic sours. Fresh and somewhat sweet raspberries all throughout. Lactic yogurt for sure.

MF- Foamy and crisp very light bodied Framboise. Carbonation seemed like it would be higher as the cork blasted off but it is on the medium-low side. Finishes probably on the verge between tart and sour.

A whole lot different than the Black Label Gueuze and for me this tastes like a young lambic aged on raspberries because of the lack of big sourness and complex old lambic flavors. A great early afternoon refresher.