Raspberry Radler
Waterloo Brewing

473 mL can
Served in a pint glass

This beer pours a very pale amber hue. It is topped with a couple inches of off white head that recedes rather quickly leaving spotty lacing. It has a soda-like appearance.

It smells like fresh raspberry purée.

It has a delicious and refreshing raspberry flavor.

Medium bodied with a smooth mouthfeel

This thirst quenching beverage hit the spot after a long week of work outside in the brutal summer.

 

 

16 ounce can into pint glass, canned on 2/15/2019. Pours slightly hazy pale golden/yellow, light pink/orange color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big juicy/tart/tangy red raspberries, fruit skin/seed, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, pear, melon, red apple, cracker, and white bread; with lighter notes of wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance of raspberries, lemon, apples, moderate pale malts, and light-moderate earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big juicy/tart/tangy red raspberries, fruit skin/seed, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, pear, melon, red apple, cracker, and white bread; with lighter notes of wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness; and fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Lingering notes of tart/tangy raspberries, fruit skin/seed, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, pear, melon, red apple, cracker, white bread, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Great robustness and balance of raspberries, lemon, apples, moderate pale malts, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; with an awesome malt/bitterness and tart/tangy fruit balance; with no puckering/astringent flavors after the finish. Moderately crisp/clean finishing. Perfectly clean on lager flavors, with no yeasty notes present. Moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitterness, tart/tangy fruit, and carbonation. Medium-high carbonation and light-medium body; with a very smooth, moderately bready/grainy, and sticky/acidic/tangy/tannic balanced mouthfeel that is fantastic. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 2.5%. Overall this is an excellent radler. All around great robustness and balance of raspberries, lemon, apples, moderate pale malts, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; very smooth, crisp, clean, and refreshing to drink; with the mellowly bitter/tart/tangy/drying finish. Very flavorful and not watery for the ABV. Awesome balance between juicy/jammy fruit, and clean pale lager flavors; with nice earthy hop presence/balance for the style. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and impressive style example. Will be perfect for summer.

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Feb 15 2019 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a clear, pinkish orange-amber colour, giving rise to more than a finger of foamy, off white-tinged head that erodes within two or three minutes' time. An impressive coat of sticky, messy lace is left in its wake, plastered just above a narrow collar of froth; looks better than most radlers IMO. The raspberry juice is all I'm really getting on the nose, underlain by a subtle grape juice-like sweetness that doesn't draw much attention to itself - nothing particularly beer-like about this one so far, but I do like raspberries so I can't complain too much.

I mean, it's a decent fruit beer - and I use the term 'beer' very loosely here - but in terms of depth of flavour it's as shallow as a wading pool. Raspberry juice from start to finish, with the apple juice providing a more neutral background sweetness, and just the slightest hint of citrus. More raspberry fruit in the finish, with shades of raspberry tartness doing little to disrupt the sugary, one-dimensional profile of this brew. Light in body, and nearly as fizzy as sharply carbonated as a soda - feels fizzy and prickly on the palate, making for a fairly refreshing experience.

Final Grade: 3.34, a passable B-. Waterloo Raspberry Radler could've been worse. If you've ever used one of those touch-screen soda fountain dispensers they have at fast food restaurants, and added the raspberry syrup to something fairly neutral flavoured (e.g. Sprite), you've more or less already tasted this product. In all fairness, "beer" is relegated to the ingredients list here - the label deems it an "alcoholic beverage", a term usually reserved for coolers (and other fruit/soda-flavoured beverages along those lines) - so it's not as if I can claim that I was duped. I don't think I'd buy this again, as I tend to find the citrus-flavoured radlers to be a more refreshing summer beverage - berries are just too sweet to achieve the same effect.

Clear rosy pink, surprisingly good lace. Raspberry syrup on the nose, not much by way of beeriness. Tastes like one of those Italian sodas you get at Second Cup. Thin bodied. Drinks like a soda, tasty raspberrywise, but not much as a beer. No edge to it.

 

Watery