Rodenbach Alexander

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

Sampled at Oakes’ ’05 Xmas Party
94: Amber ruby color, light head, light lacing. Nose of sweet complex rasp/straw berry. The flavor is equally tart and sweet. My god, this is good and fresh AND it’s 11 years old?! Wow, awesome. The Belgian characteristics are still robust and fresh. How much longer could this go?

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

<font face="book antiqua"> One Flemish Sour to rule them all...Spotted by the eagle-eyed beer hunter MRomero548 and saved from the clutches of certain doom by the valiant Goldtwins, I have come into possession of the One True Flemish Sour. With great anticipation I crack open the cap to be greeted by the familiar whoosh and rolling vapours of a well kept beer. With fastidious care I release the contents of the bottle into my glass. A billowing, ruby-tinged, soda head covers this hazy sanguine hued delight. Instantly I am surrounded by black cherry trees; evenly spaced and continuous to the horizon of the earth. At my feet lies an old oak bucket with tarnished brass hardware and a supple leather handle. A gentle breeze kicks up and the scent of nature in bloom greets me. My hands fiddle with the cigar I rolled this morning. Thinking the better of it, I place the cigar in my shirt pocket knowing how finely it will pair with a glass of sherry after dinner. I can almost taste that balsamic vinaigrette and cranberry salad waiting for me at home. Sipping the beer I find a firm initial sweetness is quickly overcome by a staunch acetic sourness. Flavors roll over my tongue in a mild and oily manner. Spritzy carbonation washes away any would be puckering harshness leaving behind a pleasantly dry tang...and in the tartness bind them.
0,33l bottle, snifter. </font>

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.

Pours red and muddy with a generous tannish head. Smells vinegary with some tartness and barnyard qualities. From the first sip to the finish, there is an underlying sourness only matched in the greatest ecamples of this style. Some nice woody qualities are also quite pronounced. The oak aging did this one well.

12oz bottle generously shared by Styles. Pours a very dark red color with a thick off white foamy head. Nose is sour cherries, sugar, light bready malt, biscuit. A full body, sugary and sour cherries in the flavor. Palate is fizzy and playful, light bitter finish. Some notes of bread and biscuit in the flavor as well.

Rating #1000. Bottle from Styles. I wanted this beer to be mind-blowing, and I wanted to write a review of it likening it to a roller-coaster... where all the beers leading up to this were the endless climb up to the top of the first hill. Where the cap is popped and I am just bridging the hump. The first sniff is taken and it all comes into speed, as I fly along the track and am taken for a wild, intense, amazing ride that is done before I know it. And then that is it. Back to the grind, back to the baby steps in between the adrenaline rushes, the hours of waiting between each 2 minute adventure.

But I am not going to write a review like that. Because this isn’t quite that good. Is it great? Yes. Fantastic? Perhaps. But so good that I could dare write a review calling every other beer I have had up to this point just another step towards the pinnacle that is Rodenbach Alexander? Nope. Oh well!

So here is my review:


Small white head.

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.