Mestreechs Aajt (5% ABV, unsweetened)

Formerly brewed at Gulpener Bierbrouwerij
Style: Sour Ale
Gulpen, Netherlands

On tap at the Monk’s Cafe in Philly. My first Flemish Sour. Burgundy with no head. Smells like vinegar with some yeast. A little carb bite makes it drinkable. Tastes like cider vinegar but smooth; never gets too sour. Some fruity sweetness on the edges. Not the sourbalI I expected but still not much more than vinegar. After a Hop-It, a N’ice Chouffe and a Damnation maybe this never had a chance.

Deep, caramel/ruby in color with a fast, tan head. Sour cabbage and vinegar aroma with hints of apple and white wine. Sulphur notes late as alcohol emerges. Flavor is not as tart as the aroma would imply, with prune and beef before a cider-vinegar finish. Interesting bittersweet punches surface intermittently. Acidic gut-burn follows while the mouth waters from salty-sourness. I applaud its complexity as this beer certainly covers a range of sensations.

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Sour balsamic vinegar aroma. No head, no fizz, and sour mouthfeel. Dark mahogany color. Grape syrup taste, tart, but just sweet enough to counter. Once you’re past the smell, its actually easy to swallow...

Raisins, plums and bubblegum with some balsamic vinegar notes in the aroma. Clear, deep, amber-brown coloured body is topped by a low white head that recedes to ring. Initial acidty is swamped by a sugary sweetness along with balsamic, fruity and nutty notes. Medium body is somewhat sticky with fairly low carbonation. Bottle (Bello Vino, Jul-05) sampled with martinT, Olivier_MTL, Rastacouere and Siroy.

Clear burnished burgundy pour wearing an irregular off-white film. Strong fruit nose, like candied prunes, grapes and peach, evolving into pomegranate and apples as it warms, but not without out of place phenols reminiscent of bee wax. Fruity palate surprises by its “unsweetened” state when it is in fact very sweet and not in a pleasant vinous way, more in a candied apple fashion, which would certainly be more agreeable without the extremely poor body, that shows swiftly fading carbonation that shines by its quick absence and leaves a dulled out mouthfeel to carry unfocused flavours. I’m stunned at how much I preferred the original sweetened and lighter version.

11.2oz bottle-pours a fizzy, short, offwhite head. Color is brown/dark amber. Aroma is fruit, vinegar. A lambic nose. Taste is dark fruit, sweet, vinegar. Mild carbonation, good occasional beer.

Any first impressions?
-A veil of head laces around the muddy brown-red gown.
-Balsamic vinegar notes broaden the friendly grapey fruitiness.
-Flavor is grapey, yeasty, and strangely quite sugary.
-The smooth carbonation makes it relaxing, but mostly forgetful due to its shy flavors.

What if you dig deeper?
-Some tartness flies across the palate, but is smothered by sweetness.
-Pretty simple flavor structure, nothing exciting for the palate detective here.
-Wasn’t this supposed to be the unsweetened version? Could our bottle be too old?
-Barely an introduction to the style, there is much better out there.

Bottle; no date.

Pours dark brown with a thin tan head. Very tart aroma with a strong smell of vinegar along with hints of cherries, apple cider, honey, oak, and whiskey. Sour cherries hits you full force on first sip. There is also a red wine quality to the beer, and you can really tell it was aged in oak barrels. Starts out sweet and sour and finishes with a slight bitterness and lingering vinegar bite. While it has a nice tart fruit taste, it is hardly a complex beer - very one dimensional. Mouthfeel is watery thin.