REVIEW 93: LINDEMANS FRAMBOISE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Belgium

BREWERY:  Brouwerij Lindemans

STYLE:  Lambic--Fruit

ABV:  2.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (8-oz.), $9.00

SERVING:  Lindemans branded lambic flute. Small head from the tap, especially considering the narrow mouth of the glass; not even half an inch. Immediately fizzes down to nothing like the Wicked Witch of the West.

APPEARANCE:  A raspberry-cranberry color with a pinkish-white head (while it's there). Very opaque with no visible bubbling. No lacing; just the occasional sud.

BOUQUET:  Seems to hint at sour cherries at first, like a kriek, but immediately gives way to the more dominant essences of raspberry. ("Framboise" is the French term for raspberry.) The aroma seems to feature other berries, though they are not particularly discernible; cranberry seems like a good bet, blueberry and blackberry are possibilities. Very little in the way of malted grain, and no detectable hop presence. I picked up a trace of grape- or appleskin.

PALATE:  Very sweet, but with an even dose of sour. Though raspberry is clearly the dominant factor, other berries again seem evident; they may not actually be involved in the brewing process, but they seem present on the palate. Light-moderate body with carbonation that is overshadowed by the tart taste. Slightly syrupy finish, with a somewhat yeasty aftertaste that retains the raspberry character.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  I'm admittedly a novice with lambics, as I have only had maybe one or two in my entire life prior to this review. So I'm kind of winging it here.

Lambics aren't "beer-like" in the traditional sense. There are barely enough beer-like qualities--namely, yeast and very subtle malt--in them. (I considered flunking this along the same lines of Not Your Father's Root Beer--that it just doesn't taste enough like beer--but ultimately decided against it.) The question is, Why would anyone drink this? I would imagine it makes a good dessert beer. I also can see it as a substitute for a mimosa at a Sunday brunch. But I can't imagine anyone downing a few of these at a ballgame or a frat-house. They're just too sweet and tart for that.

That's not to say they don't--or more specifically, this one doesn't--have an amiable taste. It does. But it almost seems more suited to be an additive, a complementary part, an accent, more than it does a stand-alone offering.




GRADE:  C

The former Wicked Witch of the West.