Bios Vlaamse Bourgogne

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Sour Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

A good sour, not too sour, but nice and balanced. burnt flavor, a bit salty, but not too tart and acidic.

On tap. Pours a dark cola color with a dirty brown head of bubbles that resemble fish eggs. Notes of meat, balsamic vinegar, cherries, and oak. Nothing impressive or offensive.

Bottle pours clear very dark red with off white head. Aroma is mild funk, perhaps some oak, and sweet fruit juice. Has the right amount of carbonation. Flavor had some funk, but was just too sweet. Finished sweet. Just not my cup of sour ale to be sure.

An amazingly easy beer to drink... It kind of tastes like candy. If you have a friend that doesn’t really like "good beer," but you’re going to the good beer store, pick up one of these for them. Worst case scenario, you drink it for them, it’s pretty good, and you didn’t spend that much money one it.

I pride myself on being able to enjoy beers on all ends of the beer quality spectrum. This ’beer’, despite its fancy label and seemingly sophisticated visage, is the worst ’beer’ I have ever had the displeasure of drinking. This review should, in all honesty, be on www.ratesaladdressing.com, if such a website were to exist. I bought a case of this vinaigrette at A-1 a couple of months ago and I still have a few bottles left. I cannot give this crap away. At a music festival at my house in early June, we tried to pass off these terrible beers on unsuspecting bands, but with little success. Adam Fletcher, lead singer of The Copyrights (one of my favorite pop-punk bands of all time) opened a bottle that I had given him, thinking that since it had a fancy label and seemed to come from Europe, that the beer was going to be tasty. Was he in for a surprise. After taking his first (and last) sip, his face contorted and the ’beer’ sprayed from his mouth onto my floor. This concoction would go well poured over romaine hearts or a nice spinach blend, but, just as one should never drink a bottle of Hidden Valley or Newman’s Own, one should avoid drinking this pungent potion at all costs.

Bottle thanks to swalden28. Pours a dark ruby brown with a nice creamy head that fades rather quickly. Nose is vinegar, cider, and leaning way towards the sour side. I wish it had more oak and funk. Overall a solid example of the style, but nothing mind blowing. I will continue enjoying it though as it’s one of the few sours we can get in this market.

330 ml bottle. Dark brown with a noticeable sediment, but otherwise fairly clear. Medium-sized fine-laced off-white head that clings to the glass. Classic acidic aroma, which is on the light side. Hints of oak and vinegar. Aroma is also full of grainy notes. Feels a little wheaty too. Not quite a copy of Duchesse du Bourgogne, but bad either. It lacks a little complexity though.

11.2 oz. bottle labeled Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. Pours a mostly clear deep reddish brown (more red than brown) with a moderate off-white head that lasted through two-thirds of the glass and left partial lace. Very pleasant aroma of sour cherry, malt and some oak. The flavor is just excellent with lots of rich malt which has some sweetness to it, some mildly sour cherries, caramel and oak. Delicious. The balance between sweet and sour is perfect. Lively on the palate from the carbonation while at the same time texturally smooth and flowing with a medium body. I’ll be picking up more of these for sure to keep on hand. Thoroughly enjoyable.