Liefmans Goudenband

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

2006. pours dark murky brown with varying chunks of suspended sediment and a thin but maintained head. smells of vinegar, cherries, dust and oak. incredibly smooth and mellow for its youth with such rich and expressive berry flavors, im surprised anyone’d want to add anything. raspberry and cherry all over the place. really sweet

12 oz corked bottle. Date on cork was 2005. A bit of a sloppy pour by me, got a lot of yeast in the glass but oh well. Caramel brown color with a bit of red, minimal head goes away quickly. Aroma is tangy, sweet, plums, sugar. Hint of a quad flavor at first, with sweet brown sugar and raisin. Becomes quite tart with cherry and lemon weiss notes- "fruity acidity." Like 2 different beers in one! Complex and satisfying.

My first Goudenband was 2005 vintage and it blew my doors off, since then I’ve had some 2006 that was just so-so, and I thought my first impressions may have been wrong, but tonight I found a bottle of the 2005 and again, maybe the best single thing I have ever put in my mouth. Nose is super complex leading with that awesome Belgian yeast of grapes and apples, caramel comes in on the back end and just a hint of the sourness to come. Mouthfeel is medium with some carbonation, but more of a light sour fruit bite. Taste is fermented apples and white grapes with a slight sour chase. There’s alot of depth here. Absolute classic.

Bottle which I received probably more than a year ago. Pours out a dark brown color without much of a head at all. Smell has some sour funk, but not alot, some cherries, but an overly sweet character too. Taste is too sweet, not sour, like drinking a lindemans. I would have drain poured this, but I was hoping for more once it warmed up. Wrong. No sour characteristics at all, more like a fruit pop with alcohol in it. Based on the commercial description of this being a "vintage" wine, I would assume this is about as close to vintage wine as an aged Night Train would be.

First rating
(37.5 cl bottle at "Tre Små Rum", Göteborg)
Cork dated 2006.
Clear dark brown color, tan head. Acidic, sweet, sour cherry taste, alcohol aftertaste. Spritzy mouthfeel. Low bitterness.
7/4/7/3/14=3.5

Second rating
(37.5 cl bottle at Café 3 Små Rum, Göteborg)
On March 1, 2008
Cork dated 2006
Dark brown color, tan head. Acidic scent, almost like a lambic. Also cherries a dn rather sweet and spritzy. Smooth, acidic, cherry taste. Very moussy mouthfeel. Low bitterness. Tasrt acidic aftertaste.
8/4/8/3/16=3.9

Tasted 2007-11-03. Bottle from 2006, 37,5 cl. Pour hazy chestnut brown with off-white head. Aroma of prunes, cellar, wild fermenting and cookies. Ditto flavour. Very tasty IMO. Nice balance between the sourness and the more sweet malt flavours. Great beer!

Sampled @ GDBTF. Pours a reddish brown with healthy capping head. Wild sourness and musty, sour oak cherries, then in comes the nice malt sweetness that balances out the more unusual flavor notes. Yum, if you’re into this sort of thing.

Pours cloudy, with chunks, dark brown, with a clotty sort of top. Scary! Aroma is sweet and malty. Rather akin to dark fruits. Flavor is very much like prunes, dried cherries. with a little sourness and a strong, sweet body. Moderate palate. Very excellent.