Bruery Terreux - Frambulous

We’ve really been enjoying the sour releases from The Bruery and Bruery Terreux, and this is the most expansive one to cross our paths in a while. The raspberry quality here is immense, encompassing aromatic notes of everything from stems to berry, and it’s offset beautifully by a deeply developed sour presence: tart grapefruit, puckering lemon—but all edges smoothed. Frambulous pours the color of red raspberries, or ruby-red grapefruit, with a modestly pink-ish/tan head atop. And everything about the aroma syncs up: quite forward with tart berries and mouthwatering tartness, with its subtle oak edge from barrel aging adding key structure. There’s even some lemon custard—intricate citruses with lactic acidity, and soft oaky vanilla.

The taste stays quite true to the nose. The raspberries remain at the forefront: pulpy, perfect in their tartness, like juicy little bubbles of sour framboise lambic. It’s bracingly, endearingly, not-messing-around sourness, but it’s complex, and couples a smooth lactic core with some sharper, more intense acidity that smoothly links up. If you’re into tart raspberry beers, and we most certainly are, this is as good as the best we’ve found: nuanced fruit character that’s effortlessly expressive, a ramp-up of diverse acidities, and then, at the back of all things, the subtle influence from that time spent in oak barrels: hint of tannins; subtle vanilla varnish.

Despite a relatively modest ABV, Frambulous is solidly built and firmly acidic; The Bruery suggests “this beer may pleasantly evolve over time when cellared properly.” (We wouldn’t be inclined to cellar it solely for extra sour character; it’s delicious and potent as is.) For as impactful an experience as Bruery Terreux’s Frambulous brings to the table, we’re inclined to pair it with something creamy and pillowy: a fresh goat’s milk cheese, or a triple cream.