Careful With That Raspberry, Eugene
Beachwood Blendery

Pours a darker red, that ruby kind, thought it would have been a lighter red/pink kind of thing, but nah. The head it formed didn't really last, fizz up/down, up down. . . but had good clarity for something a darker shade of red. Aroma was interestingly Belgian, de garde manages to get their own unique spontaneous bugs to reflect the agrarian area of Tillamook, but truly this is more like a city spon similar to those in Belgian cities. Spider webs, not cattle ranching?

Taste was as reliable as any other beachwood 'lambic', delivered good fruit quotient in balance with the other aspects, neither too sour nor acidic, I did notice that the mouthfeel wasn't as dry as I thought it would be, raspberry is usually about the driest in my experience. Super crushable effortless drink. I think I was scoring these 750s for $16 too which is a relatively good deal in terms of quality and reliability for this kind of product.

 

this is the first large format bottle i think i have seen from this series. the smaller ones are around town, but this i have not seen before, perhaps a couple of years old now or more, but i couldnt find a date on it. either way, its striking, and like i have come to expect from these guys now, its straight up lambic, real framboise here folks! i am not sure how they do it, but this is as faithfully old world belgian as anything else being made in this style in the states, it could have come from one of the famous producers. the beer is a beautiful deep pink to light ruby in color with absolutely immaculate clarity and a slow fading inch of white airy head. it smells like lambic right away, beautiful funkiness to it, instant mouthwatering, super mature, a bacterially derived acidity thats clean and interesting, the classic iodine and medical waste complexion too, especially in the finish when i taste it. each sip gets past the raspberries and ends with the dry, iodine funk, its crazy, even bitter for a flash which is kind of new to me in one of these, but a product of its maturity to be sure. the fruit is tart, ripe raspberry, really natural though, and with almost no sweetness from the grain at all so it really stands out. minerals like copper seem to come out too, and there is a ton of oak, white wine tannins, and layers of brett. its complex and its beautiful. something i would never have gravitated to a few years ago when these first came around, but now that i know how good these all are, i cant get enough. this is one of my favorites in this series without a doubt! beautifully made framboise, top of its class!

 

 

 

 

A lovely pink color. Reasonable head but quickly faded. Smells brightly raspberry-ful. A touch of vanilla, but otherwise just tons of raspberries in the taste. Tastes like a solid framboise.