Oni Densetsu Framboise is a 5.5% wheat beer made with raspberries. Yet again the three-month shelf life of this beer means that it won’t be hitting the supermarket any time soon. Let me read the mysterious English on the bottle: “Fruity and sweet, the bounty of Hokkaido has produced a fruity, light tasting”. Fruity, light tasting what, guys? Is it a shoe? Am I about to drink a fruity, light tasting shoe? (Actually I hope fellow Hokkaido brewery and notorious flavour terrorists Abashiri Brewery didn’t read that, it might give them ideas).
Doesn’t look like it has raspberries in it to me.
Oni Densetsu Framboise Aroma and Flavour
Oni Densetsu Framboise pours out smoothly with a whitish foam of head that quickly dissipates. It’s a cloudy, deep burnt orange colour, and has a faint sour nose that reminds me of a gose (my current best friend beer style).
Down the hatch it goes. It’s sweet, as to be expected, but not as sweet as the Sweet Strawberry I reviewed the other week (that might have had strawberries in it). Unlike the Sweet Strawberry, there’s also a sourness and a very light maltiness to the beer. While Sweet Strawberry tasted like a spoonful of jam in a can of Asahi Super Dry, there’s a little more body to the wheat beer underneath Framboise. Also the dry aftertaste comes from the raspberries, not the hops. The sour taste of the fruit and the bready wheat makes me think of a liquid slice of toast and jam. The aftertaste isn’t as aggressive as Sweet Strawberry- it’s of raspberry the fruit rather than raspberry the jam.
Oni Densetsu Framboise The Bottom Line
I’d rather drink this than the Sweet Strawberry (and its mystery fruit taste), and you’re very likely to see both beers side by side either online or in a souvenir shop in Hokkaido. It’s a decently made beer, but fruit beers aren’t really my thing and tend to taste too jammy for my liking (apart from a certain yuzu salt beer) (are there too many parentheses in this review? (I’m not entirely sure (don’t get me started on nested parentheticals though (those things can get out of hand unexpectedly (like this)(think I pulled it off though))))).
Where to Buy Oni Densetsu Framboise
Oni Densetsu Framboise can be bought online at the following places:
