Framboise for a Cure

Framboise for a Cure
Russian River Brewing Company
6.5% ABV
American Wild Ale

12.7 oz bottle from 2011 (base beer Temptation: Blonde Ale with Raspberries and Brettnomyces aged in French oak Chardonnay barrels) poured into a snifter. Thanks Ron!

A beautiful and sparkling clear rose color with a light pink, creamy, fluffy head. Good retention and lacing too. Funky notes with raspberry at the back jump out of the glass, this is a true Framboise. Rather light on the fruit, the base beer is strong in this one. Strong funk, some soft fruity notes (from the tame yeast), and then the berries. I think it is more complex than the bottle of Temptation that I had, and not only because of raspberries.

The sourness from the wild yeast and the tartness from the raspberries are felt distinctly in the taste. While the palate is not super funky, the oak and leather linger in the aftertaste. Finish is quite dry, and the mouthfeel light and crisp.

The sharpness, although not abrasive, begins to dominate as the beer warms up. Overall I was very impressed by the aroma of this beer, but the taste/feel left something to be desired... it seemed a tad empty. Perhaps there's a lot of room for development?

4.5, 4, 3.5, 4, 4.5

Assorted reviews

Bell's Best Brown Ale

Pours a hazy rust brown color with an off white creamy head. Good retention and lacing. Aroma is, well, browned malts ;-) Tastes slightly sweet with a good specialty malt character manifesting itself in caramel flavor and roast. Just a hint of hoppiness at the end with a long, comforting aftertaste. Good body, rather high carbonation. Plenty of residual sweetness. A good brown ale.
4, 3, 4, 3.5, 4
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Goose Island Winter Ale

Brown hued, good clarity, light tan head with medium retention and lacing. Smells malty-sweet and slightly earthy. A good beer for what is a boring style on its own. Fairly clean finish with medium carbonation. Not a bad beer and worth drinking again.
3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5
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Alaskan Winter Ale

"IPA colored", clear with ok head, retention and lacing. Not much of an aroma except cheap candy like notes that the taste also suffers from. Alright carbonation. Rather WTF of a beer, IMO.
3.5, 2, 2, 3.5, 2
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Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat

Dark enough to be a stout. Aroma is coffee and roast and taste is identical. Roast is the centerpiece of this beer. Straight up stout with bold flavors that complement each other. Body is rather thin but this just a stout with a low ABV, not imperial stout. I am very glad to have discovered this and I am going to seek it again and again. I like it a lot.
4, 4, 4, 4, 4
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Town Hall Smoked Hefe

Cloudy amber-gold colored beer with medium retention and no lacing. Strong smoked pepper notes in the aroma with no hints of the base beer. Taste, however, has more dimensions. Fruity sweet hefe to begin, followed by rather "green" chili flavors. Turns out it's actually brewed green! Definite heat at the back.
3, 4, 4, 4, 3
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Town Hall 900 English Ale

Clear amber colored, good retention and lacing. Aroma is certainly the hops from the other side. Earthy. Very very bitter with a quite dry finish. Low carbonation and clean finish. Too bitter to be called a bitter, but otherwise ok.
4, 3.5, 4, 4, 2
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Town Hall Raspberry Scotch

Pink brown, hazy, good retention and lacing. Lush, ripe raspberries in the aroma that dominate the base beer and I am not complaining!! Plenty of flavors without too much sweetness. The scotch ale component manifests itself only in the slight roast at the finish. I like this beer!
4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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He'Brew Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah (13)

Bottle from 10/2009 shared with friends on 11/2011 with 2 years on it.

Pours dark brown with a tiny brown head. Vanilla, fruit, caramel, sweet malts in the aroma. Drinks with plenty of dark fruit and chocolate with ample roast at the back.
    Good body and medium carbonation. The finish is quite sweet, but the 13% ABV is hardly felt. Overall it's very good and has closet aged very well.
4, 4, 4, 4, 4.5

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TREAT (Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter)

Bottle from 2010 with an year on it.

Pours clear and dark brown with some bubbles but no real head. Smells very spicy, most notable nutmeg, followed by assorted spice and chocolate. Tastes sweet but chocolaty with strong spice, and perhaps pumpkin. I don't think it would have been any better or worse fresh. Mouthfeel is a bummer, thin and overcarbonated. While I wasn't impressed much by any individual component of this beer, I think it's overall a well crafted beer.

3, 3.5, 3.5, 2, 4
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Rodenbach 2007 Vintage Oak Aged Ale (Barrel No. 230)

Enjoyed late 2011 with friends.

Murky brown with a dirty off white head that leaves soon but leaves a persistent ring behind. The aroma is big on oak... very soft with notes of vanilla. Of course, the sourness is around, but the softness and roundedness was very welcome.

    Very mellow taste too, with notes of tart apples and dark fruit. Distinct oak in the finish and perhaps even vanilla. Rather lacking in intensity but very complex. Medium carbonation, smooth mouthfeel and a dry finish. I liked it a lot especially I got it about five bucks cheaper than the usual price at 11.99!

4, 4, 4, 4, 4.5

St. Louis Framboise

Bottled May 05, 2010. 12.7 oz bottle poured into a Sam Adams perfect pint.

    Framboise pours a deep red-brown color with a light pink head with very good retention and lacing. The aroma of raspberry preserves was noticeable even while pouring, so the strong raspberry sweetness in the aroma is hardly a surprise.

    I am drinking this right after their Gueuze and I find it surprising that the base beer is completely dominated by raspberries... well, not technically the base beer but say the beers that started the same at different points in time? All I detect beneath the raspberries is a strange, chalky note.

    The taste is way too sweet in an odd way, and that's when the sweetness should come as a pleasant change :/ I think it's sweeter than real raspberries, BUT the acidity is strong too. Anyway, I was curious and some googling yielded:

"This brew is made with fresh raspberry juice which is matured and blended with gueuze-lambic to produce a dry, sweet aperitif."

    Yeah, this is way too sweet for the real fruit. I suppose this travesty is done to enhance the popular appeal, but to repeat myself once more, this is just too sweet!

    The carbonation is ok but struggles to clean the sweetness off the palate. Eh, I am so disappointed, I don't even bother at this point.

4.5, 3, 2, 3, 2

St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition

Bottled Jan 20, 2010. 12.7 oz bottle poured into a Sam Adams perfect pint.

    This "ale" looked very clear in the bottle and poured a bright hay color with an off-white head made up of fine bubbles. I was almost certain that it was filtered given the clarity but it says unfiltered right on the bottle... after pouring I looked inside the bottle and there was a compact layer of settled yeast/stuff. Good news. Good head retention and lacing too.

    Funk, hay, spice and some softness in the aroma. Tastes quite sour and pleasantly so having spent some time conditioning in the bottle. Hay/earth and lemon rule the taste, with little funk making it to the palate. Generously carbonated and very very dry, but somehow not abrasive, yet. Just a bit of bitterness at the back, much like fruit peel.

    I have had the pleasure of sampling a few highly regarded and sought after Gueuze thanks to the fine folks I have met on BeerAdvocate. I suppose what separates, say Lente, from this one, is the intensity of the flavors layered on the sour.

    Regardless, very much of what I expected: tart, dry, reasonably if not immensely complex and all for a very decent price (6.99+tax), not to mention the easy availability. I am happy that I had this, and I will drink it again!

4, 3.5, 3, 4.5, 4

Parabola

Parabola (Batch # 1)
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Poured into a New Belgium balloon. Thanks Frank!

    Jet black with a sheet of dark brown bubbles for the head. Hardly any lacing but the beer itself clings to the glass sip upon sip. Certainly "strong" looking.

    Aroma is mostly vanilla and bourbon. Some alcohol here and there, nothing fusel though. Taste is signature -bal stout: slightly sweet with notes of vanilla, slightly acidic with a powerful roasty and woody finish and lingering roast on the palate. While not a coffee stout, the aftertaste is very close to chewing on a roasted coffee bean.

    Certainly warming in its strength with a medium body among similar examples. The carbonation is too high for my liking. Another flaw, in my opinion, is the excessive wood. Whisky sits in a barrel to get mellow; the effect of barrels on this beer seems to be the exact opposite. Not that I mind an intense beer but Parabola sometimes feels like wood and vanilla, and nothing more.

4, 3.5, 3.5, 2.5, 3

Schell's Stag # 4: Burton Ale

Burton Ale
8% ABV
60 IBUs
12 oz bottle with a best by date of 03/2012 poured into a Duvel tulip.

Schell’s Burton Ale is a nod to a forgotten style of beer. It has a soothing blend of bready malt and hop bitterness.   A mild woodsy character is prevalent. A hint of dark pitted fruit and a trace of caramel give the beer a subtle sweetness. The pleasant hop bitterness at the end gives Schell’s Burton Ale a smooth, dry finish. 

    Poured a deep and clear orange-rust-brown hue with a medium light khaki colored creamy head. The head was rather small for the pour but the head retention and lacing look alright.

    Earthy, but weak hop aroma. Malty sweetness, hint of fruity esters, and a note of dessert. Certainly sweet in taste, with subtle breadiness as advertised, and characterful caramel and dessert. Hard to say if it's the malts or the candi sugars, but it seems to work alright. The bitterness appears only at the back and the finish is indeed dry for the medium body. I think it could have used lesser carbonation.

    Frankly, this beer at this point seems rather uninteresting to me, "revival" or not. It gives the impression of either old Arrogant Bastard et al., or of an old/strong/barleywine ale that's not ready yet... rather muddled if I may say so. Seems like a good candidate for aging, just to see if the malt character develops any more/optimal oxidation takes hold. Can't hurt to lay a couple down.

3.5, 3, 3, 3.5, 2.5

Hunaphu's

Hunaphu's Imperial Stout
11% ABV
80 IBUs
30 degrees Plato
80 SRM

An Imperial Stout Aged On Cacao Nibs, Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Ancho Chilis, Pasilla Chilis and Cinnamon.

750 ml bottle from the year 2011 poured into a snifter. Thanks Frank, Jason and Kan.

    Hunaphu's is by far the darkest beer I recall drinking. Unlike any other stout I remember, Hunaphu's seems to pour BLACK rather than dark brown! The head is moderate, very dark chocolate brown, with good retention but hardly any lacing. I do notice legs on the snifter. I don't think I can quite describe how awesome this beer looks... it's the devil in liquid form!

    The aroma is very heavy on vanilla with some chocolate coming in at the back. Initially I loved it but it got a tad tiring over the course of the beer. Something something juicy and spicy... could it be the hops? Or is the chilies? Tough to say.

    Unlike many other "specialty" stouts, the stout is not lost in Hunaphu's. Bitter and roasty with a burnt, charred finish, Hunaphu's is stout first. I can taste and smell the fire! On this delicious stout base, there's plenty of chocolate, coconut, malty sweetness, and perhaps a little too much vanilla. Not that I mind, but it's too strong for an entire 750. Hard to pick the chilies but that could either be the "age", or the fact that my palate doesn't pick anything hot until it's real hot ;-) Regardless I feel the telltale heat at the back. Good.

    Mouthfeel is spot on, thick and chewy although the carbonation could be dialed down a notch or two. Overall, Hunaphu's stands out in its complexity against straight up Imperial Stouts while avoiding the booziness of barrel aged stouts. I wish the vanilla notes were dialed down a bit, that's all!

4.5, 4, 4, 4.5, 4.5