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 Rosé 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 Rosé de Sambrinus 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
Label Log
References
Photos
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