Founders:Rübæus (USA: Fruit Beer: 5.7% ABV)
Visual: Deep cherry red. Dash of an off white head.
Nose: Tangy and musky mix. Raspberry. Strawberry undertones. Brambles.
Body: Sweet strawberry ice cream syrup. Tart raspberries. Slight cheeseboard character. Twigs. Raspberry ripple ice cream, Grapes behind.
Finish: Sweet raspberry syrup. Oak. Malt chocolate note. Raspberry ripple ice cream. Cheese cake.
Conclusion: Hmm. You know I really should stop starting conclusions with “Hmm”. Hmm, you know, syrupy sweet fruit beers tend to have a rep as being a bit crap. Bit sugary sweet, inoffensive, that kind of thing.
The thing is, this is quite syrupy sweet, but actually pretty good.
Its sweetness is not a million miles away from New Glarus’ Raspberry Tart, and has a similar very full raspberry character, with tons of genuine fruitiness. Where it differs is in an almost ice cream and ice cream syrup styling that is streaked throughout. Despite that though, you really get the raw fruitiness and a good light tartness. There is even unexpected notes, some strawberry in particular – I have no idea where that come from.
It also shows similarity with New Glarus in that it has that twig and cheeseboard character for complexity, though here the increased sweetness moves it more into cheesecake territory. Even with all the fruitiness the base texture is readily identifiable as beer, if perhaps beer that has had syrup squirted in it. It seems half way between a Fruli and New Glarus, with a call to the flavours of both.
The syrupyness does occasionally work against it, but with that exception it is a very tasty fruity beer, like a raspberry ripple beer.
You know, I think that is the second time I have used that description for a beer.
Tasty, easy to drink, very good fruit character but just a tad too syrup filled. Still pretty good.
Background: Yes I copy pasted the name to save looking up all the special characters. This is a raspberry beer, and the first time I have seen Founders on tap outside of the USA. So I decided to do a review. While I was drinking away The Eels, White Stripes, the Radiohead came on the sound system. It was like a flashback to my late teen years. Not entirely a bad thing. Anyway, it was sunny. Again. My attempts to extinguish the sun with pure hate are yet to be successful.
