I don’t believe any of the cranky old men have ever said “I’m in the mood for a raspberry light lager”. But with one on my beer shelf front and center, daring me to throw convention to the wind, I head up the raspberry trail with Whitewater Brewing to find the best Vantage Point to enjoy the view of this brew from the top.
As far as berries go, we’ve cavorted in strawberry fields and defused a blueberry bomb. We sampled some Huckleberry Hooch from BC. We’ve even sampled a Chinese gooseberry (Kiwi) special. Then there was that pucker producing cranberry sour. Believe it or not, not that it matters to me whether you do or not, we have sampled a couple of brews of the raspberry persuasion. But I must admit, raspberries are not high on my berry bucket list.
Not the raspberry beret that Prince was singing about.
After a pink as can be Rosée Hibiscus was it out of line to expect a pink pour? But no such pour materialized. In its place was a clear golden classic lager pour with a bright white head, a fine looking pour I might add, but devoid of any pink whatsoever. Pinkless. As for the aroma, it was not at all beery, but very berry. All berry on the nose this one. So overbearingly berry that I was concerned that this vantage point may well be over the top. So berry that the song Raspberry Beret * came to mind and ear-wormed its way into my brain. You may have surmised by now that the aroma was fairly raspberry.
The first taste was definitely busy as in fizzy, with a nice touch of raspberry to go with the malt backbone. It had a dry finish to it, a crisp refrain. Whitewater got the berry balance right on this one. A touch of tart would have made this a tasty sour.
Not a go to brew or fridge stocker suds, and not something you would order in a bar, but an interesting departure from the everyday.
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