Raspberry Austere
Une Année

Three years on from the last review (a thoughtful one by ichorNet), Raspberry Austere has been released again. I bought one from the Une Annee's gastropub and I should've bought four of this new re-release (only 3 on UnTappd this month.) Bottom-line: a pretty, fruity table ale that also is refreshing.

While a pretty pink-ish, Raspberry's Looks are Austere (not much foam.) But, it has fruity and refreshing attack on both the nose and the palate. And finishes semi-dry. Cleansing on the palate.

If this is at least Austere's third release, I'm starting to like Une Annee even more because it shows their depth and constant improvement. I've been shy of them as Annee primarily is a Wild house; so their saisons sometimes have gone in a Wild direction for me. But not Raspberry Austere. It is a true cross-Pond saison; designed to quench thirst (I had been playing tennis indoors near the gastro-pub) and was suitable for my meal at home of Thanksgiving leftovers. The low average rating from the 2014 release I take to mean that Austere has improved nicely. A Sante' !

3/18/23 I just picked up a 4-pack from Une Annee's gastropub that was canned in mid-2021. While the above review was from the tap, I've edited the above and largely agree: this is a well-made saison and most be improved from earlier releases based on those low ratings. Austere paired well tonight with garlicky world-famous vegetable soup and my favorite cheese bread from La Fournette. Did its job as a table ale.

First review of the new batch of Raspberry Austere! Honestly, I've had more good beers from Une Année than bad ones at this point, though some have been kinda questionable... they haven't let me down lately anyway, so I figured I'd give this one a shot because it sounds really interesting. An Aramis dry-hopped saison with raspberries... bring it on!

The pour is a beautiful hazy pink-red color with an absurdly saturated hue to it... it looks super dedicated to the concept, so that's exciting right off the bat. The head is fuzzy and off-pink, building up to about a finger-and-a-half with solid (if spotty) lace. I can see some chunks of what I assume to be fruit/hop/yeast particulate sinking to the bottom of the glass, but I'm long since past caring too much about sediment in beer. Overall, this looks good, but if you don't like "chunks" in your beers, this may turn you off.

The nose has a good amount of funk and estery fun playing with tart and jammy raspberries that unfortunately also seem to carry a little bit of vinegar/acetic acid note with them. Hopefully this doesn't intrude into the palate too much, but it's definitely there. I can pick up some blueberry, cherry, pluerry (basically a hybrid plum/cherry), and strawberry as well. Some light ethanol and lemon seltzer undertones going on. Weird. Smells a bit like it's gone funky, but it's not bad.

Luckily it's a better tasting beer than you'd assume from the unusual nose. Sure, it's by no means a normal saison, but I actually think the dry-hopping did a lot for this. Though Aramis is similar to its parentage (Strisselspalt, mainly), it has some light citrusy and grassy overtones that work well for this beer. I believe the notes of lemon I noticed from the nose probably could be attributed to this dry-hop addition. Now, the raspberry morphs into a more refreshing aspect here as well, with an initial hit of rustic graininess combined with light spice and phenols. The mid-to-finish transition has a lot of fresh, jammy berries along with a slight undercurrent of dark pit fruit (like I mentioned early, it has that plum-like aspect running through it). Interesting stuff. A one and done for me, but a fun one. I feel like this threw me for a bit of a loop, but I also didn't have an idea of what to expect. I respect any brewery that can keep me on my toes like that, even if the end result isn't utterly spectacular.