Best Raspberry Beers: 10 Ranked

Raspberry is one of the oldest fruits used in beer, going back centuries to Belgian lambic brewers who first started macerating fresh fruit into their spontaneously fermented beers. It is also one of the most versatile: the same base fruit shows up in tart, funky, centuries-old Belgian lambics and in bright, modern American fruited sours, wheat ales and even an imperial gose.

Two brewing traditions dominate this list. Belgian lambic producers like Lindemans, Boon, Timmermans and Hanssens macerate real raspberries into a spontaneously fermented lambic base, producing beers that range from light and sweet to genuinely funky and wine-like. American craft breweries, meanwhile, tend to add raspberries to a kettle-soured or wild ale base for a brighter, more fruit-forward result, often at a noticeably higher ABV. Below are 10 worth trying, ranked from the biggest and boldest down to the lightest and easiest to find, with real ABV, brewery and rating data for each, plus a note on which ones you can get delivered through Saucey right now.

Short on time? Our top 5 raspberry beers at a glance:

Sixpoint Super Raspy

8.3% ABV, Imperial Fruited Gose

Bell’s The Raspberry Wild One

6.2% ABV, American Wild Ale (Sour Brown Ale)

Founders Rubaeus

5.7% ABV, Fruited Wheat Ale

Timmermans Framboise Lambicus

4% ABV, Fruit Lambic

Lindemans Framboise

2.5% ABV, Fruit Lambic

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1. Sixpoint Super Raspy

Part of Sixpoint’s Infinite Loop series, Super Raspy takes the classic gose formula, tart, salty and light, and pushes it to imperial strength with a huge dose of raspberries and a touch of milk sugar for body. It reads more like a fruited sour than a traditional gose because of the ABV and the fruit-forward intensity, closer to raspberry candy than a session beer. It is a limited seasonal release rather than a year-round can, so availability comes in waves through specialty bottle shops.

Not currently listed on Saucey; check Sixpoint Brewery’s own site or your local bottle shop for availability.

2. Trillium Twice the Daily Serving: Raspberry

Trillium built this beer specifically to double down on everything that makes their fruited sours popular, amplifying the mouthfeel, fruit addition and ABV compared to a standard Berliner Weisse for what the brewery calls its most expressive, luscious fruit beer to date. It pours a deep ruby red and delivers aromas of homemade raspberry jam before finishing full-bodied and remarkably drinkable despite the intensity. Trillium has a devoted New England following, and this one tends to sell out at the brewery’s own retail locations before it travels far.

Not currently listed on Saucey; check Trillium Brewing Company’s own site or your local bottle shop for availability.

3. Bell’s The Raspberry Wild One

Bell’s ages a sour brown ale in oak foeders for up to eight months with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus before adding raspberries for a final layer of tart, fragrant fruit character on top of the funk and acidity from the wild fermentation. It holds an outstanding 95 score on BeerAdvocate, one of the best marks of any beer on this list, reflecting how well the wood, wild yeast and fruit balance out. It is bottled in 750ml bottles as a limited, occasional release rather than a standing product, so it comes and goes depending on Bell’s barrel program schedule.

Not currently listed on Saucey; check Bell’s Brewery’s own site or your local bottle shop for availability.

4. Hanssens Lambic Experimental Raspberry

Hanssens is one of Belgium’s oldest and most respected lambic blenders, and this raspberry variant ferments real raspberries directly into their lambic base before maturing it in oak barrels. It carries close to 9,600 ratings on Untappd at a 3.8 average, and the flavor leans more toward a genuine wild-fermented fruit beer, tart, funky and complex, than the sweeter, more filtered raspberry lambics from bigger commercial producers. It is imported in limited quantities, so it shows up mostly at specialty beer shops that carry Belgian imports.

Not currently listed on Saucey; check Hanssens Artisanaal’s own site or your local bottle shop for availability.

5. Founders Rubaeus

Rubaeus takes its name from the Latin for raspberry, and Founders built it to be a lightning strike of intense raspberry flavor on top of a berry-red wheat ale base, sweet but not cloying, tart and genuinely refreshing. It is one of the more widely distributed raspberry beers in the country thanks to Founders’ national reach, available in 6-packs at most well-stocked beer aisles rather than being a limited or seasonal chase. If you want a raspberry beer without hunting for it, this is one of the easiest to find.

6. Collective Arts Raspberry Dry Hopped Sour

Part of Collective Arts’ Dry Hop Sour series, this raspberry variant combines a kettle-soured base with dry hopping, an unusual combination that adds a hoppy, slightly bitter edge most raspberry beers do not have. It holds a 3.83 average across more than 20,000 ratings on Birrapedia, and the artist-designed cans are a signature of the brand, each release featuring different original artwork alongside a QR code linking to music from emerging artists. It has solid distribution across Canada and parts of the US Northeast.

7. Shock Top Raspberry Wheat

Shock Top built its Raspberry Wheat around the same smooth, citrusy Belgian-style wheat base as its flagship Belgian White, adding natural raspberry flavor for a lighter, more mainstream take on the style than anything else on this list. Being an Anheuser-Busch brand, it has by far the widest national distribution here, sold in most grocery stores and gas station coolers rather than requiring a specialty bottle shop trip. It is the easiest entry point if you are simply curious what a raspberry beer tastes like without committing to a sour or a lambic.

8. Timmermans Framboise Lambicus

Timmermans claims the title of the world’s oldest lambic brewery, tracing back to 1702, and its Framboise adds 100 percent natural raspberry juice to a year-matured lambic base for a delicate pink beer with a soft, tart raspberry character. It is gentler and less funky than artisanal blender lambics like Hanssens, making it a more approachable entry point into the style for someone new to Belgian fruit beer. It is imported widely enough to show up at most well-stocked liquor stores with a Belgian beer section.

Not currently listed on Saucey; check Brouwerij Timmermans’s own site or your local bottle shop for availability.

9. Boon Framboise

Boon has brewed a raspberry lambic since 1976, using more than 300 grams of fresh raspberries per liter macerated into young lambic for a beer where the fruit genuinely leads rather than the barrel character. It comes corked and caged like a bottle of wine, in 250ml, 375ml and 750ml formats, reflecting how much this beer is positioned as a sipper or shared pour rather than a session beer. Boon is one of the more consistently well-regarded traditional lambic producers, and this is considered one of the better commercially available cherry-lambic alternatives for raspberry specifically.

10. Lindemans Framboise

Lindemans has been blending lambic with pure raspberries since 1979, and Framboise remains the widest-reaching raspberry beer on this list, with more than 210,000 Untappd ratings, dwarfing every other entry here. At just 2.5% ABV it is closer to a fruit aperitif than a beer in the traditional sense, filtered and sweetened for broad appeal rather than the funkier, drier profile of artisanal lambics like Hanssens or Boon. It is genuinely easy to find at most stores that carry any Belgian beer at all, making it the default starting point for raspberry lambic curiosity.

FAQs

What is the difference between a raspberry beer and a cherry lambic?

They are both fruit lambics from the same Belgian tradition, just made with different fruit. Cherry lambics, known as kriek, use whole sour cherries, most famously Lindemans Kriek and Boon Oude Kriek, while raspberry lambics, called framboise, use fresh raspberries, as in the Lindemans Framboise and Boon Framboise on this list. The brewing process is otherwise nearly identical, spontaneous fermentation followed by fruit maceration.

Why do raspberry lambics vary so much in ABV, from 2.5% to 6%?

Traditional commercial lambics like Lindemans Framboise are filtered and sweetened for broad appeal, which keeps the ABV low at 2.5%. Artisanal blenders like Hanssens and Boon let more of the lambic’s natural fermentation come through, resulting in a drier, funkier, higher-ABV beer. American craft raspberry sours and wild ales, built on a different base beer entirely, tend to land even higher, in the 5.5% to 8.3% range on this list.

Does raspberry beer taste sour or sweet?

It depends entirely on the style. Sweetened commercial lambics like Lindemans Framboise taste closer to a light raspberry soda than a sour beer. Kettle sours and wild ales, like Sixpoint’s Super Raspy or Bell’s Raspberry Wild One, lean tart to genuinely sour, with the raspberry adding fruit character rather than sweetness. Wheat ales like Founders Rubaeus and Shock Top’s Raspberry Wheat sit in between, sweet and tart but not sour.

Is a raspberry wheat ale the same as a raspberry sour?

No. A raspberry wheat ale, like Founders Rubaeus or Shock Top’s Raspberry Wheat, starts from a smooth, slightly sweet Belgian-style wheat base with no intentional sourness. A raspberry sour, like Collective Arts’ Dry Hopped Sour or Avery-style kettle sours, is deliberately soured during brewing with bacteria cultures before the raspberry is added, giving it a tart, puckering edge the wheat ales do not have.

Can I get raspberry beer delivered?

Several of the beers on this list, including Founders Rubaeus, Collective Arts’ Raspberry Dry Hopped Sour, Shock Top’s Raspberry Wheat, Lindemans Framboise and Boon Framboise, are listed on Saucey for local delivery where available. Coverage depends on your delivery address and current stock, so check the specific listing linked above rather than assuming every beer here ships everywhere.

Four of these ten are traditional Belgian lambics, a real reminder that raspberry beer predates the current craft sour boom by centuries. If you want a starting point, Founders Rubaeus is the easiest to find on a regular shelf, while Lindemans Framboise is the gentlest introduction to the classic Belgian lambic style if you have never tried one.