Liefmans Goudenband

Brewed by Liefmans (Moortgat)
Style: Sour Ale
Oudenaarde, Belgium

375ml from Once Upon a Vine, Richmond. Glad I finally got to try this, what with Liefmans apparently going under. It’s a very fine sour brown. It pours thick and with a lively carbonation, but man I think this is the highest concentration of yeast floaties I’ve ever seen! Doesn’t bother me much. A substantial malty brown, that’s high quality, is the foundation of this beer. But it’s very pleasantly tart, with traces of the barrel there, and a nice dry finish. Really good stuff. Hope I can snag another bottle.

Bottle picked up at Londis, Goring, Oxon, had this 27-01-08 Poured conker brown with quite a bit of yeast in suspension the head was off-white. The aroma was sweet molassess and some sourness. Tasted great sourness again with an underlying dark brown unrefined sugary sweetness, there was an oakiness to this as well and very fruity. Great beer

Bottle at 3-smår rum Göteborg: Dark red colour,creamy head. Aroma of citrus,coffee,complex aromatic beer this one. Flavor is almost the same but has some dark choclate in it too. Sour yes, but nice enyway.Medium fruity/winy finish.

Struck by the beautiful brick red color right from the start. Aroma is sweet, tart cherry, earth, musty, plums, some citrus. Sour cherry, darker fruits, plums, malt, rather sweet. Finish is long and quite sour. Body is thicker than expected. Impressive as hell. I must get my hands on more of this.

I was told at the time of ordering that this was a lambic, but the description on this site of it as an oud bruin makes a lot more sense. This beer had sourness in spades, and I do love sourness. It poured a red brown opaqueness with very little head. Aroma was a significant malt character with some fruitiness; I saw another user mention plum and I think that’s appropriate. Flavor was more complex fruitiness with a malt presence and significant amount of sourness. Most sour beers with a fruit character (there are some, like Berliner Weisse that have sour without much fruit) have a cherry character, and this one didn’t, which I thought was unique and tasted good. Mouthfeel was about what I expected for a beer of this style. I thought this was very good, and I’d recommend it. I had it on-tap at the Ginger Man.

Pours to a dark, cloudy brown ale. Aromas of yeast and plum. Fruity and citrusy flavours initially. Sour finish. Very complex beer.

2006 bottle. Pours a very very dark reddish brown. Really thought it looked a god bit like a stout at first glance. Big sweet round nose. Huge massive malt backbone. A smidge of a cherry-like tartness and some slightly earthy downright oaky notes. An almost artifical grape flavor sweetness in the nose, vinous and thick. A hint of vanilla. Thick on the tongue with very subtle carbonation. A bit syrupy? This is one massive sour ale. Not massively sour thought, massively sweet! Big giant malty backbone. Rich and sweet, offset by a fruity tartness and a hint of alcohol. The woody flavors mingle with a berry like tartness to make this work. Alcohol and tartness in the finish along with lingering sweetness. I need to try this with more age on it... I guess I’ll have to pick up a couple of bottles this week before it’s all gone for good!

Brown with tiny head. Aroma is tart with sour cherry, sweet malt and wood. Flavor is sweet and sour with wood, malt, earth and grapefruit. Lovely.