Grand River Ploegers Vlaams Rood

Reddish-brown and muddy. Balsamic, woody, with a slight red currant fruitiness and brown sugar notes. Tart front gets sweeter but is fairly dirty, like sawdust with some pedio. Alcoholic dryness comes in late. Lots of hop - you get this long, pithy bitterness and some leafy character. Quite an interesting brew, but finishing a pint is way too much work.

(500ml bottle, courtesy of IrishBoy) Pours a cloudy amber body with a medium beige head. Aroma of leather, candy, vinegar, and herbs. Flavor of sour cherries, caramel, light roastiness, some florals, and earthy.

My Bottom Line:
Earth-covered sour cherries and heavyset caramel somehow coexist amidst the wild tartness of this rich yet drinkable Sour Ale.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A beautiful mushroom cloud of a head rests atop the muddy reddish brown. A balanced appearance?
-The mouthfeel is quite hefty, which is unusual for the style.
-Light wooden hop bitterness is found within the mostly tart finish.
-There’s lots of suspended matter in this pint. The flavor profile might benefit from some cleaning up (loose filtering?).
-The expansive effervescence enlightens the mouthfeel, which is appreciated.
-The yeast is also earthy and bready; a very expressive strain overall.
-Caramel sweetness surprisingly lingers.

Bottle; thx Dany!!

Bottle courtesy of Matt7215. Pours brown with a thin white head. Smells of sweat, dry malt, some sugar. Tastes bitter and basic with some dry funkiness. Strange and not at all sour.

A dark lightly hazed brown ale wutg a thick moka head. Aroma is rather herbal, catnip, spices and earthy. In mouth, a very malt ale with strong hopping, herbaceous, italian herbs,a bit metallic, but not to style, as it is missing the lactic notes, the sour cherries. This is veering on an herbal old ale, not a Flemish sour. Still, a nice rich ale. Thanks to Probstk for bringing me this.

On-tap at Volo. Reddish colour and yeasty sour mild aroma with sweet malts. Taste is creamy, above average, with candied sourness behind it. A very good creation, trying to be more acceptable though not the ususal example of the style. Worth a half pint.

Draught. At Volo. Looks great - murky ruby-brick red with a smallish but lasting creamy yellowish head. The aroma was mild, at first -dry resin bitterness, dry wood and a hint of smoke; also sour cherry and serous acidic funk ... perhaps a tad ragged, but oh the potential. The taste was more intensely malty than I expected, loads of thick sweet cherry goodness, but also intensely resiny and what reminded me of long-dried hardwood fencing - earthy, minerally woodiness ... dry yeast and a little boozy lemony acidity that built - odd; for all that, this was extremely drinkable. Thick, acidic, bitter and sour on the palate - only 3/5 for now, but I would love to put bottles away of this for a year or two and see what some blending and mellowing would do to it .... if only they bottled it!! (soon, perhaps?)

“Pin” at Volo
Appearance: Pours as deep murky copper-ruby-brown, smallish rocky top. Nice colour.3+.
Nose :Plenty of sweet berry with some zest , strawberry like (ripe), leafy hop side. Solid composition. 8-
Flavor/Palate : Firs sip gives you feel of mellow slow impressions. Strong hop underlying with sweeter berry top. Vintage hints , this heavy-light fruity-hop palate works surprisingly very well. Sour front is well covered in blanket made of hops. Here and there short fruity burst appear. With time as it warms up this ale becomes weighty with its flavour richness. Fruitiness is being replaced by mixture of Gouda and blue cheese, Smooth alcohol adds warmth. Complex, polarizing style.