Rodenbach Alexander

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

I finally got to try this amazing brew. Pours an amber hue with a sour aroma of roses, yeast, and a hint of spice. Flavors of honey raspberries, spices, cherries. Nice sourness with an amazing finish. Slight peppery finish.

Five beers for a thousand - Beer #998. 1998 Vintage. /Bottle at Beer Circus, Brussels. Poured into the glass, this is deep read with a fine, patchy head. Cherry aroma. Flavour is wonderful, cherry - very fruit and tastes fairly aged. Refrained sweetness and some acidiy - fairly sour and tart. Thick. I’m suprised I liked this one as much as I did.

Hazy amber coloured body with a small white head. Aroma of pure tart cherries with a great sour scent...makes the mouth pucker without even taking a sip! Medium-bodied; Very tart taste with a great maltiness-not overpowering at all. Aftertaste shows a pleasant sweetness and a good finish to a great beer. Overall, this one was a very fine example of a flemish sour-tart but still showing some sweetness. Great to try...attempt to get your hands on this one! I sampled this 33 cL bottle at the November RB party at Founder’s in Alexandria, Virginia on 20-November-2004.

DC/MD/VA/WV/PA gathering. Hazy reddish brown, very small tan fizzy head. Could smell this beer all day if given the chance. Tons of wood, oak, earth, and dried sweet cherry. Well balanced with sweet and sour battling to the finish. Medium to full bodied, pillow soft carbonation, drying cherry and oak finish. Just awesome!

Cloudy reddish tea. Sour nose, cherries and vinegar. Flavor very cherry, punchy fruit jumps up, great balance of sour on the back side. A nice marriage between underwhelming fruity flemish sours and overpoweringly sour ones.

Beer pours dark reddish brown. Decent sized head that diminishes quickly, aroma of sour cherries in the pour. Sweet cherry, but not cloying. Oak and funky sour push through the cherry sweetness for a finish that has seldom tasted better from this humble rater. Just a perfect balance of sweet and sour. RIght in the middle of Cantillon and Lindemans. A sad thing they do not produce this nearly perfect beverage.

First beer of the gathering. Not sure the date on this one (was it last made in 2000?) Bottle @ the Gathering. I believe Eyedrinkale or Jeffin7 brought this, not sure. Pours a dark ruddy orange/caramel color with some haziness perhaps?. Small beige head. Aroma is highly pungent: Cherries, wood, resinous earthy notes. Great intensity on the aroma as well, even after the bottle had sat open for some time. Flavor of cherry pits, more wood (oak,balsa, cedar) earth, lightly sour yeast. But overall, wow, this is surprisingly tame. I expected to be puckering my lips after this one. Moderately sweet, medium to medium-full body, sticky palate up front but light tingly carbonation, loosens the palate (not too much so). Lightly sweet toffee, maple and cherries mixed with citrus linger on the finish. Regardless of how old this bottle is, it is has aged very nicely and shows no oxidation or thinning. 9/4/8/4/17

Rerate from a bottle shared with Eyedrinkale in August 2005. This was the most full bodied, succulent, well-aged treat I’d had in a while. No syrupiness, not overly sweet. Perfectly sour and quenching with huge amounts of flavor and a long, lingering bacteria/musty/yeasty finish. Sour, but not TOO sour (if there is such a thing as too sour). Dry, vinegar and balsa/cedar notes, with light chocolate and prunes and brown sugar. Wonderful mouthfeel of tiny, tiny, bubbles popping in the mouth nicely. Out of this world! 9/4/10/5/19
Rating is an average of the three bottles I’ve had, though I’m tempted just to use the most recent. We’ll see how the next couple of bottles taste.

ownBottle Pours a cloudy light brown like unfilterd cider. No real head but enough of a white ring to maintain nice lacing. Aromas are of swet and sour apples and pears. Flavors are quite tart but it works well with teh sweet fruit flavors. Finish is dry and feel is softly carbonated and unfiltered.