Ichtegems Grand Cru

Brewed by Brouwerij Strubbe
Style: Sour Ale
Ichtegem, Belgium

330 ml bottle. Delicious reddish brown body with a big, dense beige head. Aroma is cherry fruity with a slightly acid/vinous hint. Flavor is malt, wood and fruit almost perfect balanced. Relatively mild, but flavorful.

Bottle. Poured a medium brown color with reddish highlights. Not much light came through it. The head was thin and light brown with good retention. A bit of lace was left behind on the glass at the end. Pleasant aroma that included the likes of red wine vinegar, distinct tart cherry, and toffee. There was also a whiff of molasses. Medium to full bodied with mixed malty sweetness and light to moderate acidity. The malt backbone was sturdy. Tart cherry, molasses, toffee, brown sugar, and red wine notes graced the flavor. A bit sweeter than I like, but pretty good stuff.

Bottle.Pours brown with a beige head.Aroma of sour grapes,berries and barnyard.Mildly sour and spicy flavor with some mild funk and wood, a decent amount of residual sugars .Medium body.Oily and vinous texture.Nice one.

Bottle from bottleworks. Deep red-brown pour, nice woody aroma. Quite a drinkable Flemish red, tart but not overly vinegar, well-integrated wood, easy-going and totally enjoyable even though it was lacking the sort of complexity that makes the style shine. I think I prefer this to Duchess, for example.

Deep red color with a small off-white head. Aroma is faint and sour - wood, brown sugar, and plums mostly. Taste is the same - subtle and buttery. Kind of boring, not at all acidic, the sourness is minimal, and there are no vinegar-like notes here. Good body. Drinkable, but uneventful.

[9/8/08] Bottle at my hostel in Brussels. Deep red-burghundy color with a pinkish-beige head. Aroma has some slightly caramelly malt and light acidic woody notes. Sweet flavor with malt, brown sugar, some dark bread, fruitiness and subdued wood notes. A decent beer but not as a Sour Ale.

Brown witht a note of red. Has an off-white head, fully lasting. Aroma of wood, acid, lactic. Candis too. Flavor starts sweet and acidic, finish light bitter. Dry, syrupy texture.

Dark purple to brown body and no lacing. Aroma is a very nice sweet red fruit and a bit of tartness. Lightly sweet cherry flavor, candy sugar body, cream in the middle, faint hint of oak in the finish and a slight tartness. Nice creamy body.