Oude Framboise

Timmermans has had a long and quite eventful history before falling into the clutches of John Martin back in 1993 already - and ever since they won a medal for their traditional geuze in 2013 at the World Beer Awards (for what it is worth, I know) has been slowly but steadily working on a range of lambics which nowadays encompass both the sweetened, 'compromised', filtered derivatives which I first got to know this brewery for, and traditional, actual lambics worth that name, some of which are actually really good. I guess this dichotomy is now continued into raspberry lambic territory, with the 'Framboise Lambicus' representing the 'industrial' and sugary branch that has been around for a few decades, and this newish 'Oude Framboise' embodying the traditional branch with actual raspberries and no additives. Since these traditional framboises, in existence for at least more than a century and possibly much longer, are not very easy to come by anymore today, I found this one rather intriguing. Initially fizzy, pillowy head quickly reduced to a thin, opening, off-white, tiny-bubbled ring of foam with flat 'islands' in the middle over an initially clear, deep and pure orange robe with (fried) salmon pinkish tinge and lots of lively, very small-bubbled sparkling, shifting to a hazy cognac-orange in the end. Aroma of recognisable fresh raspberries indeed - but the wild and tart white ones perhaps, next to unripe sour orange, preserved lemon, rosehip, wet wood, damp cotton cloth somewhere, wood sorrel, green tomato, pickled cucumber, wet blue limestone, sweaty leather, Cape gooseberry, stewed but unsugared rhubarb. Tart, spritzy onset, lots of crisp raspberry acidity (as expected) with actual 'real' raspberry flavour, not showing any artificial raspberry flavouring at all - which in this case, I admit it, surprises me; the fizzy, very minerally effervescence accentuates the sharp raspberry sourness as well as the flavours. Elements of green tomato, gooseberry and halfripe plum, perhaps a whiff of unripe persimmon, linger over a smooth cereally base severely dried by not just the acids of the fruit but those of the lambic as well, joining into a 'ball' of lemoniness which may prove a tad too sharp for some - but this is what you get with raspberry lambics if they are made with real raspberries. Woody tannins are reinforced by tannins from the fruit (seeds) and help to establish a very dry finish, in which interesting retronasal aromas linger, varying from the obvious raspberries and less obvious green raspberry bush leaves over Cape gooseberries to armpit sweat, bergamot tea, wet leather and oxidized sherry. Emphatically sour - without descending into the feared 'battery acid' catacombs once tucked away in faro - but lively, colourful and, in a sense, layered, with aromas I was not expecting; it has been too long since I had the classics in the 'traditional framboise' genre (Boon, Girardin) but this one is at least completely credible and 'real'. Timmermans truly is back - I could go on about their Geuze Caveau being by far the least credible of all traditional geuzes available around the turn of the century, and I could point at the sickly sweet fruit beers the brand was (ab)used for by owner John Martin many a year ago now, but if this is their new standard when it comes to actual lambic products, which should have been their core business all along, then all those misfits from the past are easily forgotten. Too acidic for many, this one, sure, but at least it is a completely 'true' framboise - take that 'Lambicus' version instead if you cannot take the heat. If it still exists...