Sly Fox Black Raspberry Reserve

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pored a light red with highly carbonated pink head. Excellent aroma. The flavor was light and fruity with long lasting aroma that was where the fruit came through the best. Excellent with chocolate as a desert. I mixed it withBrewery Ommeggang's Chocolate stout for a good desert beer. As the mixture warmed the true pairing of Chocolate and berry showed off.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Excessively carbonated as a careful pour yields a five-finger thick head that fills my 25cl tulip glass. The head falls quickly though and is a dirty, pink-tinged, tan color. The beer is a clear, dark red color that shows a brilliantly clear, ruby hue when held up to the light. The aroma is all raspberry and is apparent even as I pour the brew. Bright, raspberry fruit notes including pulp and skin are vibrant and fresh and about all I can pull out of the aroma; it smells a bit like raspberry soda that has a light vanilla edge to it.

Bone dry and quite light bodied. The lack of sweetness really mutes the raspberry flavors. The raspberry character is still here in the flavor though with a light tartness, perhaps just a hint of sweetness that accentuates a light, fleshy raspberry character, there is also a touch of a tannic edge (presumably from the fruit skins & seeds). In some ways this doesn't really have much in the way of flavor, even though the fruit flavors are very light they still play a bigger role than the very faint malt or hop notes. This is really very light bodied, even watery with no real heft to it at all.

Based on the aroma I was expecting this to be a sticky, sweet mess. This has perhaps gone a bit too far the other direction as it could use just a touch of sweetness to boost the fruit flavors. With the malt playing such a reduced role, this really could use some funkiness to boost the flavor and complexity, either that or about twice the fruit might do the trick as well.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 4

This fruit beer pours a raspberry red color form a 750 ml bottle. Medium sized pinkish foamy head. Aroma is raspberries and sweet. A medium to light bodied fruit beer. The malts are fruity and wheaty. The hops are earthy. This beer is very sweet and artificial tasting. There is a pronounced seltzer and soapy taste. The raspberry flavors are very sweet and seem a little artificial tasting, more like they used raspberry syrup than real fruit. Did not really enjoy this one. Mouthfeel is a full. Finish is crisp. Aftertaste is sweet.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Man, this beer was all over the place. I gave it high marks for the appearance because man, it just looked stunning in my glass. Absolutely beautiful I thought. A rich, purpleish/red color, with a nice light pink foamy head, the kind that you'd get from pouring a 7-Up. Aroma is raspberries. Yep, just raspberries. Mouthfeel had that mineral water/club soda kind of feel to it. Flavors had that extract, fake raspberry taste to it. Almost saccharine like. Kinda like a watered down framboise mixed with a wheat beer. Not the best. But looks damned good in my glass.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

A ruby red color with little head. A big rapsberry filled aroma with little else going on in that department. The flavor is the same with some raspberries but the fruit flavor isn’t overwhelming. A carbonated mouthfeel and a light body. Not much to this.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

Ugh 2nd nasty one in a night. Poured a cloudy redish color with okay head. Aroma was only raspberries. Flavor was the same with some nasty wheat flavor very very watered down. undrinkable, second pour in a night unheard of.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

A true girlie drink. Poured a ruby red and murky color. The head was decent and the lacing ok, but not spectacular. The aroma was all raspberries. The flavor all raspberries over an American wheat type base: some funkiness to it, but heck, who cares when you have this much raspberry in it. Way too fruity. Not overly sweet, but, not my cup of tea (or mug of beer). I’m ok w/ some fruit beers when done well, but not this one. Re-rate, 12/06: Watered down raspberry flavors, soda-like, I stand by my initial comments. A not so good beer, maybe lower than my initial rating.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Growler. Light red color with small head. Nice rasberry color and aroma. I understand a lot of fresh rasberries are used in brewing this stuff, hence the $18 growler pricetag. Not too sweet and nott too light but just right. Not a fan of fruit beers but this was as good as any that I’ve had. I put some of this in my Hitachino Sweet Stout and it was great.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 8

Growler, poured dark purple with no head. Weak raspberry aroma. Strong raspberry taste with slight alcohol (8%) warming on the way down. Did not know this was considered a wheat beer till I just read it here.