Van Honsebrouck St. Louis Framboise Premium Lambic

As you may have noticed, I wrote the last entry while at the Acadia Cafe, Cedar & Franklin Avenues, West Bank, Minneapolis, one of my favorite spots in town. (Formerly the home to the Riverside Cafe, whose slogan was "the electromagnetic center of the universe.) I was getting ready to take off, and then the rain started. So, the beers start again, and I chose something very different from anything they have on their 28 taps, a Belgian raspberry lambic from the makers of the Kasteel line, Brouwerij Van Hounsebrouck.

And for the purposes of this entry, we look back ...or, I do, you don't, and I don't have a mouse in my pocket...and see that I had it for the first time way back in May of 2005, on tap at the Blue Nile. Here come the notes:


My first taste of this stuff is the first pour from a freshly tapped keg.

Clear, deep rosy red appearance, perfectly pink head of full, fluffy foam.

Aroma: all raspberry, nothin' else, tart, but not too much beyond what comes with that fruit's flavor.

Taste: Puckeration right at the start, just a pinch of mouth-gripping tart, then it all rounds off. A fruity affair, but clean and neat on the tongue, after that initial bite. A tasty tango in the mouth, but mostly smoothness owns the day. Lip-pursing continues with consecutive sips, as the tartness hangs in there.
Very light in body, though, with a long, tangy, fruit finish.
"Like soda pop!" said someone (with zero familiarity with the lambic style)who sampled this with me. Yeah, yeah...it is a commercial lambic, of that there is no doubt, but it makes for adequate dessert sipping, and isn't really bad at all.