Rodenbach Alexander

Formerly brewed at Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm)
Style: Sour Ale
Roeselare, Belgium

1994 Vintage
Consumed at Heeren van Lindekerke in June 2006 (12 years cellared)
Clear medium-dark ruby and burgundy colored body. Nose consists of smooth creamy cherries, slightly sweet candy-like scent. Flavor is crisp, lightly sour, has a good frothyness, somewhat peppy as well. Light sharpness in the nose, syrupy cherry fruit and red grapes (wine) flavors, sum this one up fairly well. Perhaps my bottle was a little oxidized, because I found some alcohol or acetone scents. Has soda-like carbonation. I tried pretty hard to find something remarkable in this one, but I did not find it. Overall it’s good, but I did not feel it was worthy of the 100th percentile. As a footnote: I truly love flemish sours.
Photograph of Bottle & Glass:
http://www.youforgotpoland.org/beer/RodenbachA /> 8/4/7/3/15 = 3.7

1996/7(?) Vintage
Bottle shared by ryan, consumed June 2008 (11-12 years cellared)

Pours clear dark rusty brown in color, leaving a huge cement yeast cake on the bottom of the bottle. Pungent, acidic, big and thick on the palate, sticky bread crust and vinegar and brown sugar everywhere. Extremely deep and complex, but the richness and huge body is the real draw here. Thick, sharp, acidic, wine-like at times, vinegar-like other times... excellent stuff. Much better than the 1994 bottle I had in 2006.
8/4/9/5/17 = 4.3

1994. Hazy multi-brown. No head, only small white lined bubbles on the surface. Vinegared dark fruits (cherries, plums, raisins), oak, lightly tart, lightly sweet. Light/medium body, flat. Past its prime, but still very tasty. Cheers to boboski for opening this rarity.

Bottle 1998 – Brown body with red shine, huge creamy light brown head, thick laces; Very pleasant, deep and complex nose with perfect balance and lots of interesting notes, perfect sourness with wood, cherry, citrus, ripe grapefruit, ripe orange (the best Flemish sour ale nose I ever smelled); Very pleasant full soft body, very soft carbonation, extremely pleasant; Moving smooth and perfect into a balanced sour finish with cherry, orange, apple etc. This is a close to perfection of a Flemish sour ale, I ever tasted. Simply great, fantastic and amazing. Why did they stop brewing this beer?

Bottle. Best before 1994, sampled in May of 2006. Pours a bright copper-brown body with a small, whitish lacy head. The aroma has faint oakiness, lots of cherries, generally vinous, along with some chocolate. Flavour falls apart considering the expression I was presented with in the aroma - it’s awfully sweet and sugary...certainly too much so for my palate. There is some cherry flavour too but I didn’t find this to be entirely complex though there are some woody undertones. I would have liked to try this fresh.

Bottle at Le Biere Circus 3/06 Bottle was brought up from the cellar with an unreal amount of dust and cobwebs.I don’t know if you can manufacture dust and cobwebs but if you can it was well worth it for the appearance and made it worth the 15 euros I spent.Crystal clear amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma of wood/oak,cherries,slighlty acidic and sweet. Flavor is of sweet malt,sour cherries.

Bottle at Heeren van Liedekercke - thanks to Mike (mds) for sharing! BBE 17/6/94
Sparkling, reddish brown body. Off-white, mostly diminishing, creamy head with a good lace. The head is very nice for it’s age. Aroma of cherries, cherry juice, white wine, red and white port, cask wood. Heavily sweet, heavily acidic flavour. Moderately sweet, moderately sour finish. Lots of cherries in the flavour. Long-lasting finish. Lightly to medium bodied. Lively carbonation. This one gets most of it’s points for it’s nice cherry aroma, the flavour isn’t so great (too sweat).

dark red with lttle white head. Average carbonation.- Sweetness and sourness goes great together. Cherries/Vinegar. good and pleasant finish. Funky fresh & quite easy drinkable! Too bad this is no longer brewed! Rerate June 09. After several vintages. Wonderful. Refreshing, dusty, cherries, wood vague balsamic vinegar.

Deep amber brown pours to a tiny head w/ nice lace. Smell remindss me of KRE big huge malty slightly tart cherry light brown sugar and some yeasty notes. Pal is full lightly tart creamy swallow. Flavor is a great lightly tart cherry a nice sweet back w a great balance & smoothness & lightly dry hopy finish. I’d barely say this is sour enough to be in the flemish category but it’s damn good there.