Boon Framboise | Brouwerij Boon

3.85/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

12.7 fl. oz. bottle
Served in a beer flute
2013 vintage

This beer pours rust colored with copper highlights. It is topped with less than an inch of beige head that leaves no lacing.

It smells like fresh raspberry purée. I don't pick up on any sour or tart aromas. Raspberry dominates.

The taste is raspberry with a little funk. There is a lot of fruit in the taste and not enough funk or sour for my liking.

Full mouthfeel with low carbonation

It is a good lambic that just lacks a wow factor. It is pleasant to the senses, but I would have liked it better if it has more funk or sourness.

★ 596 characters

3.98/5  rDev +6.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Look:
Year on bottle: 2013. Poured a fairly clear dark reddish brown color. Loads of carbonation. The head recedes in a reasonable amount of time.

Smell:
A decent aroma. Tart raspberry and a slight vinegar smell. Mostly fruit and yeast.

Taste:
Not what I expected compared to other Lambics. I expected a very rich and powerful sweet fruit flavor like others. Slightly sour and a hint of vinegar. Raspberries are very evident. Some malt comes through towards the end. There are some oak-like aging flavors that also come out. Seems a bit thinner than a lambic normally is. I did get some hints of caramel, malt, and yeast throughout.

Feel:
Felt a bit thin but not bad. Starts off a bit dry, but continues to dry out as you go.

Overall:
Not what I was expecting, but a good drinking brew. I was hoping for a bit sweeter flavor and more mouthfeel. I felt as though it started off just ok, but seemed to get better as I went. Maybe it was a bit too cold when I started. Slightly sour but not over powering. There are quite a few flavors that swirl around with this one.

★ 1,092 characters

2.53/5  rDev -32.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 1.25 | overall: 2.75

it isnt unpleasant to drink but definitely not what I look for in lambics at all. would not buy again.

The taste reminds me of a sangria or something along those lines. no complexity and very light without any strong flavors

★ 225 characters

4.41/5  rDev +18.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.25

bottled 2-3-14 and cellared until 6-20-16

L: It pours cloudy pinkish amber to brown with a 1” pink tinted cream colored foam cap.

S: Big raspberry, slight funk, oak and herbal notes.

T: Has a raspberry tartness with lemon notes, berry, and light funk.

F: Has an incredible creamy, moussey, airy texture, medium light body.

O: The texture makes this beer. It is incredibly refreshing like drinking a tart raspberry cloud.

★ 432 characters

3.71/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75

Purchased at the LCBO for around $4.00 or so for a 375ml bottle. Served at 6deg C in a tulip. 2012 vintage so it's from the older end of the cellar

A- Opens well and pours a tiny head that is gone in seconds. Very nice dark red colour and filtered clear

S- This is all that and a bag of chips. Nice raspberry notes.

T- Thin on flavor. Very weak and sourishness is light. Sorry guys it's not a great one. Not a good one either.

M- Tons of carbonation then thin. Very thin

O- Won't drink again. I advise against this one.

Food Pairing

This not very good example of a brew would go ok with....... Pork rinds. The salty nature of the pork rinds will get this brew down.

Enjoy

★ 680 characters

4.07/5  rDev +9.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

It is a beer that is deep red in color and has a white head and is fizzy throughout. The aromas are or raspberry and jam, sugary and sweet. The taste is carbonated and sweet, slightly tart and hints of raspberry and other red fruits. Very light bodied. Great overall.

★ 267 characters

4.49/5  rDev +20.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Appearance: Deep purple
Aroma: Fruity notes with citrus aromas
Taste: Sweetand sour with a raspberry aftertaste. Very crisp
Overall: Refreshing and easy to drink

★ 163 characters

4.14/5  rDev +11%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

deep red in color, some light frothiness as well. The smell was very fruity and pleasantly sweet. Taste was sweet and had hints of raspberry and pomegranate

★ 156 characters

4.23/5  rDev +13.4%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.75

Appearance: deep red and maroon colors, frothy
Smell: cherry, blackberry, raspberry, sweet
Taste: less potent than aroma, sweet, but slightly watered down. Pomegranate hints.

★ 174 characters

4.71/5  rDev +26.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

I love this beer! The raspberry taste is exactly what I am looking for in a beer. It is not too tart with wonderful raspberry nodes and a beautiful red color. It is not too sweet, and runs along the palate with a great carbonated, refreshing feel.

★ 247 characters

3.57/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Appearance: Mahogany Red
Aroma: Tart Raspberry Aroma
Flavor: Raspberry champagne is what came to mind first, Not as sour as expected, but can definitely tell this was made with real raspberries.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied.
Overall: Decent flavored sour overall, nothing incredibly special but definitely appreciable Gets extra points because the wife decided to steal it from me, so it must have something special going for it:)

★ 426 characters

3.12/5  rDev -16.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3

Boon framboise 2013

Pours a vibrant, ruby-red color, with a medium sized, pink, froth head.

Smells of extremely jammy, sweetened raspberries. The raspberries themselves provide a nice, unripe sourness, which then gets completely wrapped up by profound fruit sugar. Due to the omnipresent sweetness, nothing else cuts through, with the exeption of a noteable tartness.

Produces a silk, utmost pleasant and soft mouthfeel. The beer has a recognizable mineralic quality during its finish, evoking a fizzy impression, combined with the lively carbonation. Astonishing enough, its fantastic mouthfeel is pronounced enough to handle the beers tartness single-handedly.

Offers prickly raspberries from the very beginning, balanced by moldy earth and wet hay. A strange cotton candy adds to the berries, producing a sourness swallowing sweetness, producing a slick feature during the beers finish. From its stronger pronounced minerality evolves a timid tartness after the swallow, accompanied by earth and fruit pits. This gets joined by fruit sugar and slightly muted toffee. Finishes clean, remaining its easy drinkability while renouncing a mentionable sourness.

Too sweet for my taste, scouring over its subtle, but rewarding and Lambic defining flavors. While the fruits are easily noteable, they come along one-dimensional, as there is almost no taste development at all.

★ 1,375 characters

4.17/5  rDev +11.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured into a wine glass.

Appearance: Beautiful! Ruby-colored and wonderfully bright. When poured, a light pink spritz forms into a champagne-like head. The head fades quickly, leaving only lacing behind. This is the only limit to the appearance being a perfect 5.

Aroma: vinous, like diluted red wine and funky like left-out-overnight wine. With the funk again comes the butter. Fresh raspberry and lacto readily identify the style.

Flavor: a great balance of light malt and fresh raspberries. This malt is a great canvas for the raspberries to shine without overpowering the raspberries with syrupy sweetness. There is slight butter (diacetyl) taste to the beer. I'm surprised how enjoyable this beer is. The tartness is just like a raspberry: tart but not sugar coated or mouth puckering.

Mouthfeel: Great! this beer is so thin - literally water, but it works so well. The beer is only 5% abv, but give then body, you'd expect something even less than 5%. The thin body, combined with the raspberry and carbonation - make this very similar to flavored sparkling water.

Overall: highly enjoyable - as light and thirst quenching as Gose. 5% abv is no heavyweight, but this beery is very light/thin for its alcohol. This beer could benefit from a little more malt and body. Raspberry flavor and tartness are spot on. I am pleasantly surprised by how good this beer was. I will now certainly try the Kriek.

★ 1,414 characters

3.64/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a dark red/mahogany, no head or lace. Strong raspberry aroma(what else?) slightly tart and a tiny hint of alcohol . Raspberry taste, and very slightly tart and sour, of which I would have liked more of to add complexity . Very light body and drinkable. Hard to believe its 5.5% abc because it feels less .

★ 311 characters

3.9/5  rDev +4.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Red color with pink head, looks really nice. Aroma is very fruity with no lambic characteristics. Taste has also none of the lambic specific flavors, just a lot of fruit with moderate tartness. Seems more like a well made fruit beer than a fruit lambic. But overall it's really enjoyable and easy to drink.

★ 306 characters

3.94/5  rDev +5.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

2013. The beer is a brownish reddish purple color. It’s fairly hazy, but I wasn’t handling the bottle gently. Fizzy light pink head. The aroma has a nice jammy raspberry flavor. Very mild funk. Some sugariness coming through. Taste is better than expected. There’s some sweetness to the fruit, but it’s very natural and nice. There’s a lot fruit flavor. A solid dose of oak. Refreshing balancing sour tanginess. The finish is quite oaky. Medium to light body. Prickly carbonation.

★ 490 characters

3.44/5  rDev -7.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25

This is a beautiful beer to look at. Bubbles rise from the bottom of this rudy red colored brew. From here everything went down hill. The beer was a 2013 bought yesterday, but I am not sure if aging is a good thing. Smell is not that great, not a lot of fruit, a lot of oak. Dry taste that was lacking fruit taste. I generally like Lambics, but this one was not one of my favorites.

★ 387 characters

3.97/5  rDev +6.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

L:
-pours red with a pink,quickly dissipating foamy head
-low-medium carbonation visible
S:
Raspberries,cherries,vanilla,oak
T:
-follows the nose plus a slight tartness
-finishes very dry
F:
-Prickly carbonation
-light body
O:
Really nice fruit Lambic

★ 251 characters

3.62/5  rDev -2.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

750ml bottle dated 3/4/16 poured into a wine glass
A: Opaque raspberry red with a one-finger head
S: Lots of raspberry, some yeast/wheat, a touch sweet
T: Dry, bready/raspberry, a touch sour but not much complexity
M: Light-bodied, a little sour/ a little sweet
O: This needs to pick a direction and go with it. Either fruity or sour. Instead the lack of direction leaves it rather average

★ 389 characters

3.97/5  rDev +6.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

750 ml. bottle.

Getting down to the dirty Belgian Lambics. This brew looks great, nice shade of red body with golden hues nice slightly pink head. Some raspberry seeds in the mix too. The aroma is pretty good. Dense raspberry tartness with some faint pepper spice. Some wood and earthen funk. Time for a taste.. Just like the aroma nice berry notes upfront which then turns to a nice sourness. Some wood dryness and some faint funk toward the finish. This finishes sweet and dry. The feel is light body with par carbonation.

Overall: This brew is pretty enjoyable, considering the ABV. It's a very good lambic that is open to all crowds in the Lambic field. It's not too adventurous and yet it's drinkable beyond repair. I guess what people are looking for nowadays is acidity that will burn both your tastes buds and enamel off your teeth. All in all, this brew is worthy.

★ 876 characters

2.98/5  rDev -20.1%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2.75

An odd beast for a raspberry lambic, with notes of apple and rhubarb throughout in addition to tinned raspberries, but really let down by lack of carbonation and a very thin and watery body, which applies to taste and feel. Not real sour, either.

★ 246 characters

3.24/5  rDev -13.1%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Pours a pale portwine colour, dark red-pink. Head is white, small bubbles but fades quickly. Lace is decent, but overall a bit underwhelming as a beer.

Smells very fruity and sweet, with raspberry and apple juice characters. Odd funky note as well, with a corporeal, slightly salty aroma. Tart as well, vinegary in its fruity character. Not quite fresh, but certainly intriguing and nicely fruity.

Taste doesn't quite scream of fruity character. There's apple and raspberry notes throughout here and there, but a bit thin on the front and a bit watery. Slight tartness late-mid and some funky, organic notes late that get barnyard bitterness on the finish. Pretty decent, but it could really bring the fruit out to be more of a hero, with more acidity as well. Sort of weak fruit with late funk, neither of which is as impressive as it should be.

Decent body, but nothing much to it as far as texture goes; not too thin but a bit bland.

Drinkable and balanced, but there's something unimpressive and weak about it all.

★ 1,022 characters

3.6/5  rDev -3.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Bottle from Harvest Market
Pours a slightly murky reddish brown color with a decent sized off white heads that dissipates rather quickly. Aromas of raspberry jam, a hint of molasses, and a bit of earthy funk. The flavor Is lightly tart from the fruit with lots of berry flavor. Hints of dark caramelized sugars with a touch of citric tartness and earthy funk. Medium body with a moderate level of carbonation. Decent enough brew, but I felt it could have had more of a pucker factor.

★ 483 characters

3.83/5  rDev +2.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

375 mL bottle picked up at the LCBO (2012 vintage); best before Nov. 27 2018. I'm not much of a lambic buff, but as far as fruit beers go, the raspberry/framboise offerings tend to rank amongst my favourites. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a deep crimson-burgundy hue, technically clear but a little too dark to make much out through the glass. Seated atop the liquid is one finger of frothy, pink-tinged head that wilts rapidly over the next few minutes, resulting in a thin cap/collar and a few scant swaths of lacing. The aroma is decidedly fruity and somewhat reminiscent of red wine - dark cherry, raspberry, balsamic vinegar, oak barrel and tannic grape skin notes combine to form an intriguing, pleasant bouquet.

Tart raspberries are a dominant theme throughout the flavour profile, alongside lesser notes of sour cherry, vinegar and black currant. A little funkier than the other fruit lambics I've tried, and quite vinous as well, with a fruity, acidic aftertaste that lingers briefly. Medium-bodied, with moderate carbonation that provides a gentle, prickly feel on the palate. Fairly smooth, with the tart flavour encouraging rapid sips.

Final Grade: 3.83, a B+. Boon Framboise makes for a nice summer treat, occupying a comfortable middle ground between sweet, fruity flavoured lambics and the funky, sour ones at the opposite end of the spectrum. While this is a good beer with a pleasant, tart, vinous flavour, it's not exactly wowing me. I'd be lying if I said I planned to buy it again any time soon, mostly because it's a little pricy in this market, but given the lack of good lambics around here it's still worth a pick-up or two.

★ 1,653 characters

3.7/5  rDev -0.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

2012 bottle. From notes.

A - Red wine coloured pour, good carbonation, bright. One finger pink head with spotty lace and OK retention.

S - Sweet fruit, definite raspberry, fruit juice.

T - Raspberry, tart fruit juice, funk, earth.

M - Strong carbonation, light body, dry and mildly tart to finish.

O/D - Sweeter than some takes on the style, but good. Liked it but the tartness could have been amped up.

★ 408 characters