Rodenbach Alexander

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

33cl bottle via trade with Goldtwins saved for a while to share with Bikesandbeer who gave me the idea to pursue this beer in the first place. Pours reddish brown with a bit of tan ring of a head. The nose is sour, sweet and really pretty complex and interesting. The taste is sweet, sour, a bit vinegary and very interesting. A lot more muted than the more crazy grand cru. Pretty damn tasty. Damn really nice beer.

1989 bottle and holy mother of sours. This is amazing. Still wonderful after 20 years. Wow. Copperish pour. Aroma is fruity as hell, light fruit vinegar, sweet tarts. Flavor is so clean, so tart and sweet at the same time. Cherry, wood...holy shit is this stuff amazing. Really truly amazing.

The pour reveals a cloudy amber color with a thin white head. Excellent aroma of tart and sweet cherries with mild vinegar. The flavor is excellent with a good balance between tartness and sweetness, the sweetness tends to dominate in the finish though. The body has a light to medium thickness with a superb creamy and dry mouthfeel and moderate carbonation. After so many years the bottle kept really well, the carbonation is not strong but it doesn’t fell oxydated.

Thanks to MOboy for sending me a couple bottles of this from his stash. Pours a ruddy dark amber with a medium thin light tan head. Thin lacing. Aroma is just waiting to burst like a mob of Saturday morning shoppers waiting at the doors for a store to open during a big sale. Strong sherry, citrus, apple and grapes almost overwhelm. Unfortunately my first impression of the flavor reminded me of a cheap screw-top wine like Boone's. Sour and fruity with a light effervescent character. I am glad I got to try it as this is an interesting and complex beer, but honestly I don't think I would get it again if I had the chance.

At De Heeren van Liedekercke, 1992 bottle with the label falling apart. Clear ruby body below a thin layer of big bubbles. Intense aroma, smells like opening an oak chest containing a cherry pie. Strong barrel character, like licking the inside of an old beer barrel. Sour cherries dipped in toffee. Alexander The Great #2.

Highly fruited sour aroma. Cloudy red colour, medium vanilla head. Sour sweet, amazing fruit flavours, with cherry being among them. Tart, bitter with loads of carbonation. Wonderful!

Courtesy of wetherel who opened this gem at the fordest tasting sharing it with fordest, toncatcher, padrefan98 and of course wetherel. Pours amber-ish with tan head. It has a big old aroma with lots of tasty cherries that begin sweet and become more sour as the aromatic draw continues. Wow, lots of cherries. The flavor is also Wow. The taste begins balanced with sweet cherries and cherry tartness that is smooth and becomes even smoother toward the finish with mildly growing tartness. Smooth with hidden yeast spiciness (I ended up with some of dregs of this amazing beer) and more cherry sweetness. It is a little tough to describe due to how well it has aged and how the notes have melded and blended.

1996 vintage courtesy of dpflanzer, wow, thanks again David. Pours deep dark brown with amber edges and white head. It has a big inviting aroma of sweet cherries, mild caramel, notes of nuts, port wine notes, mild tart cherry fruit flesh and sugar sweet tartness. With more than a decade of age the nose of this beer is blended and smooth leaving other aromatic notes impossible for me to describe. Just like the nose the taste is smooth blended smoothness with sweet cherries, mild cherry fruit flesh vegetal and tartness. There’s also a sugar sweet tart candy note mixed with faint caramel and moves to the finish with increasing dryness without becoming too dry.

An old bottle at ’t Rusteel (thank you, Peter!) Dark mahogny with a stable, yellowish head. Intense cherry fruit aroma, sour as well as with sweet hints of marcipane. An explosion of flavours- cherries, marcipane, nuts with a great sour-sweet balance. Still fizzy after all these years. I am going to find something special to you, said Peter, the owner of ’t Rusteel. He certainly found a great beer to match the wonderful and too little known beer heaven he runs.