Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus

Description

Cantillon Rosé De Gambrinus is a traditional raspberry lambic (Framboise) bottled regularly by Cantillon. Its fruit content is generally around 200g of raspberries per liter of lambic. The fruiting process for Rosé De Gambrinus consists of taking pre-frozen raspberries and placing them in stainless steel tanks with young lambic for a saturation period of 1-2 months. It is then transferred oak barrels for further maturation.

Rosé De Gambrinus has undergone one notable recipe change. Prior to the 2004-2005 brew season, Cantillon used Belgian raspberries. Belgian raspberries did not add enough color so Cantillon would blend in between 5 and 10% Kriek. Because it was difficult to find enough Belgian Raspberries, in 2004-2005 they made the switch to Hungarian raspberries. These raspberries provided more color so Kriek was no longer blended into Rosé De Gambrinus.^[1]

While Framboise is most commonly served fresh, Jean Van Roy stated in the The Lambic Summit, Part 15 ^[2] that "the Raspberry is probably the fruit where the taste and color disappears the most quickly, but you can conserve the raspberry lambic. We have rose de gambrinus for more than 10 years at the brewery. And the beers are great. But you have less fruit taste, less fruit taste, in comparison to a kriek for example, a kriek from the same age. But it’s possible to conserve a raspberry lambic. For the people with a rose de gambrinus in the cellar, don’t be afraid. The beer is going to be great."

History / Other Notes

Cantillon has been making Framboise since 1909. The history prior to 1986 is described further on the Cantillon Framboise page.

The name Rosé de Gambrinus first made an appearance on a bottle in 1986 with the base lambic having been brewed in 1984. It has been in Cantillon's regular lineup ever since. There have been slight variations to the Rosé De Gambrinus label design over the years but it has remained generally consistent.. The most notable variation involved briefly clothing the woman due to label approval issues in the United States.

Bottle Log

Bottle date (mm/dd/yyyy)	Cork Date	Bottle Size	Label / Notes	Image Link
N/A	1997	750 mL	front label not glossy, no pink border, does not have back label	N/A
N/A	2003	375 mL		N/A
N/A	2004	375 mL	Naked lady label, not from the US.	N/A
N/A	2005	375 mL	Naked lady label, not from the US.	N/A
N/A	2005	750 mL		N/A
N/A	2006	375 mL	Naked lady label, not from the US.	N/A
03/26/2009	2009	375 mL		N/A
04/13/2010	2010	750 mL		N/A
06/17/2010	2010	750 mL		N/A
09/29/2010	2010	750 mL		N/A
12/29/2010	2010	375 mL		N/A
03/21/2011	2011	375 mL		N/A
12/22/2011	2011	750 mL		N/A
03/08/2012	2012	750 mL		N/A
09/28/2012	2012	375mL	Canadian import	N/A
02/14/2013	2013	750 mL	Naked lady label, not from the US.	N/A
02/18/2013	2013	375 mL		N/A
11/20/2013	2013	375 mL		N/A
11/21/2013	2013	750mL		N/A
11/28/2013	2013	750 mL
02/06/2014	2014	750 mL		N/A