Raspberry Flanders Red (2017) - Tasting Notes

This is the third blend (see plain and cherry portions) from my 2017 Flanders Red blending session.  This was my first attempt at blending Raspberry with Flanders Red.  I blended it up on 12/17/17 - read my brew notes here.

Raspberries are a really wonderfully intense tasting and smelling fruit.  They are often used with Lambic but it seemed like they would go equally well with a Flanders Red.  I used 10 lbs of fruit grown in my back yard in 2017.  The base beer was a blend of two fairly mild versions from my collection.  My thought was that the beer would gain plenty of acidity from the fruit and so a complex but less acidic base would be beneficial.  I certainly was correct about the acidity - this is a very acidic beer.

I chose to backsweeten this beer as is typically done with Rodenbach to improve the drinkability.  The base was pretty close to 1.000.  The invert #3 syrup I added probably got it up to 1.010 after bottle conditioning.  I pasteurized the beer once proper level of carbonation had been reached.  I timed it pretty well with this batch as most have been pretty well carbonated.  I bottled this beer on 5/6/18.  It's been tasting great and the raspberry flavor is holding steady.

I am overdue on my 2018 batch and have a lot more raspberries this year.  Will be putting together some new blends before long.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Sweet smelling with a strong Raspberry Character.  Maybe get a bit of earthy aroma coming through faintly
• Appearance:
• Pours with a couple finger head.  Dark red in color.  Pretty murky on this pour as I dumped in most of the dregs.
• Flavor:
• Very sharply acidic with intense fruit flavor.  The finish is a little sweet and has some malt the comes through in the end.  This balances the acidity nicely.  Complex earthy and leathery Brett flavors come through in the background.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium light bodied and slightly sweet.  The acidity of the beer prickles the mouth.
• Overall:
• I really enjoy the Raspberry character of this beer.  The complex base beer has been almost completely overwhelmed by the 10 lbs of fruit but still comes through enough to provide some balance.  The acidity a bit more intense than I would preferred but is still easily within the range that I can enjoy.  The slight sweetness from the backsweetening really helped this one a lot I think.