Vignette: Fraise
Dovetail Brewery
- From:
- Dovetail Brewery
- Illinois, United States
- Style:
- Belgian Fruit Lambic
- ABV:
- 6.5%
- Score:
- +2 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.91 | pDev: 11.51%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 4
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Aug 10, 2025
- Added:
- May 13, 2020
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
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-
Spontaneously fermented beer made with strawberries.
FRAISE comes from a conversation we had with some folks from Timmermans, the legendary 300-year-old lambic brewery, who came to visit Dovetail. They recommended using a “young” batch of our spontaneous beers—a 6-month-old blend of 4 barrels from our Fall 2018 season—for fruiting with 200kg of local strawberries. The beer then aged for an additional 7 months. Up until now, we had only used 1-and 2-year blends before fruiting, and we’re delighted with the results from the advice our Belgian friends gave us.
FRAISE comes from a conversation we had with some folks from Timmermans, the legendary 300-year-old lambic brewery, who came to visit Dovetail. They recommended using a “young” batch of our spontaneous beers—a 6-month-old blend of 4 barrels from our Fall 2018 season—for fruiting with 200kg of local strawberries. The beer then aged for an additional 7 months. Up until now, we had only used 1-and 2-year blends before fruiting, and we’re delighted with the results from the advice our Belgian friends gave us.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by REVZEB from Illinois
3.49/5 rDev -10.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
3.49/5 rDev -10.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Cellared a year. Murky golden body with a sudsy white collar. Nose is very pleasant with the sweet strawberry having a sour presence with bretty funk, oak, and flowers. Taste is not, jammy strawberry is so so so sweet up front with decent sourness but then the brett is overwhelming on the second half of the sip, almost tastes like I am drinking a paper diaper, but I will say lingering funk and oak are nice, its as if a great beer wants to emerge despite the great imbalance of flavor. Feel is dry, brett forward, sour, light, and medium bodied.
Apr 07, 2022
Reviewed by jrc1093 from Connecticut
2.91/5 rDev -25.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
2.91/5 rDev -25.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
2020 vintage; consumed on 11/3/21
Pours a foggy, dark rusty orange body carrying medium-sized particulate and capped with just under two fingers of fluffy, off-white foam; mediocre head retention leaves a slight layer of rich cap, large, creamy collar, and no lacing holding to the walls of the glass.
Aroma offers an almost abrasive affront of pink Starburst and fresh guava laced with lacto-funk, devolving to strawberry nectar over the middle as hints of rubber and slight Band-Aid detract from a mossy undercurrent leveled by clean funk.
Taste presents watery strawberry contrasting overripe guava into medicine cabinet with a distant pang of horsey funk on the mid-palate, and Flintstone vitamin before a quick, nondescript finish.
Mouthfeel shows a medium-light body sporting a boggy and inconsistent, moderate carbonation levying a concentrated, mineralic spritz over the mid-palate; minimal acidity and weaker, wet textures graze the back end as tartness struggles to evolve until a prolonged, lacto-funk twang recovers on the finish.
An immediate influx of near-saccharine strawberry wilts quickly, a burst of densely one-dimensional flavor failing to mask a faded profile and messy inconsistencies; a rough pour, somehow equal parts abrasively fruity and entirely bland with minimal funk expressed.
Nov 04, 2021Pours a foggy, dark rusty orange body carrying medium-sized particulate and capped with just under two fingers of fluffy, off-white foam; mediocre head retention leaves a slight layer of rich cap, large, creamy collar, and no lacing holding to the walls of the glass.
Aroma offers an almost abrasive affront of pink Starburst and fresh guava laced with lacto-funk, devolving to strawberry nectar over the middle as hints of rubber and slight Band-Aid detract from a mossy undercurrent leveled by clean funk.
Taste presents watery strawberry contrasting overripe guava into medicine cabinet with a distant pang of horsey funk on the mid-palate, and Flintstone vitamin before a quick, nondescript finish.
Mouthfeel shows a medium-light body sporting a boggy and inconsistent, moderate carbonation levying a concentrated, mineralic spritz over the mid-palate; minimal acidity and weaker, wet textures graze the back end as tartness struggles to evolve until a prolonged, lacto-funk twang recovers on the finish.
An immediate influx of near-saccharine strawberry wilts quickly, a burst of densely one-dimensional flavor failing to mask a faded profile and messy inconsistencies; a rough pour, somehow equal parts abrasively fruity and entirely bland with minimal funk expressed.
Reviewed by haveaduff2 from Illinois
4.16/5 rDev +6.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
4.16/5 rDev +6.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Strawberry is a tough one to get right, and Dovetail's is very nice. I'd have hoped for a bit more strawberry in the flavor, maybe a little more of its sweetness to balance out the pucker. Overall, a great effort.
May 28, 2020
Reviewed by emerge077 from Illinois
4.35/5 rDev +11.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
4.35/5 rDev +11.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
New arrival from Dovetail's ambitious barrel program. Pours a saturated reddish orange, gold in the meniscus of the glass. Ample foam rises above the rim momentarily, and leaves a lasting surface skim for the duration.
Aroma is amazing, wild strawberries and saddle leather Brett funk, very reminiscent of Hanssens Oudbeitje (a good bottle). As it warms, some sandalwood emerges, trace evidence of the barrels.
Taste is lightly tart and fruity, distinctive strawberry is present. Some earthy, mildly tannic bitterness in the aftertaste. Carbonation is steady, and will probably improve from here on out as it ages (short-term). Middle towards the finish is a little light feeling, not punchy or sour really, but that's ok. It's very delicate and pairs nicely with a mild washed rind cheese.
Overall i'm pretty impressed with this, and will hang on to my other bottle to try again in a month or two.
"Lambic - Fruit" #150
May 13, 2020Aroma is amazing, wild strawberries and saddle leather Brett funk, very reminiscent of Hanssens Oudbeitje (a good bottle). As it warms, some sandalwood emerges, trace evidence of the barrels.
Taste is lightly tart and fruity, distinctive strawberry is present. Some earthy, mildly tannic bitterness in the aftertaste. Carbonation is steady, and will probably improve from here on out as it ages (short-term). Middle towards the finish is a little light feeling, not punchy or sour really, but that's ok. It's very delicate and pairs nicely with a mild washed rind cheese.
Overall i'm pretty impressed with this, and will hang on to my other bottle to try again in a month or two.
"Lambic - Fruit" #150
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