Rodenbach Redbach

Formerly brewed at Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm)
Style: Fruit Beer
Roeselare, Belgium

The beer departs the green 340ml bottle a deep port wine red with a light reddish purple head that is modest in size, creamy in texture, and as it fades, the lace forms a thin but concealing sheet. Nose is cherry pie filling sweet, of course, there is the cherry aroma, with a brisk astringent crispness, also a somewhat damp basement musty tone. Front is powerfully sweet cherry at the beginning, which quickly turns to the acidic sourness at the back, top is light to medium in feel. Finish is ferine in its acidic bite, sweet cherry taste last to the end, desert bone dry aftertaste along with the fruit coats the palate, quite nice, but a bit off for a Flanders Red, but not so much that it matters to me, I liked it.

Browsing my favorite liquor store I came upon this oddly packaged green bottle with a cherry on it. "Kissed by Cherries" read the tag line under the title. $9 for a four pack? It must be delicious, right? Curiously, I purchased it and brought it home. Out of sheer intuition I treated the cap as a twist off and wasn’t surprised at how easily it opened. The aroma that unleashed was... cherries. Just cherries. The body... thin, red, very RED, and bubbly. The taste was comparable to that of those gummi cherry candies with the green gummi stems? (Possibly an obscure reference.) My first inclination was to pass it to the girl who doesn’t typically drink beer. She’d like it. She did. That’s when I knew I wasn’t drinking a beer, but I was drinking more of what I’d calla "beer influenced beverage" They should sell this stuff out of soda fountains at fast food vendors everywhere. Tasty, but typically not for me.

Dark ruby body with faint pink head fading fast. Strong sour cherry and mild alcohol aromas. Wine like flavors. Sweet but not too much. After finishing it’s to notice anything but the cherries.

I got this by mistake, thinking I was getting Rader, for some reason. Drank it in the bottle, so I didn’t get a good look at it, and didn’t get the full aroma, but it seemed like it was basically cherries and that was it. If I were giving a review on ratesoda.com, I’d give this the highest marks. It essentially tastes like a thick and wonderful Cherry Coke (read: super-super sweet). As a beer, it’s just a novelty. Tastes fine, but lacks any of the three points of the beer ’flavor triangle’ (malt, hops and yeast).

Bottle...brandywine color, very little pale pink head...."things that make you go hmmmm"....more like errrrahhh....jolly, like a rancher, as I smell it in the rancher...pleases the senses and I haven’t even tasted it yet...fun palate effervescent and delish!!...a wonderful use of cherries

bottle - Pours deep red with a thin head. The aroma and flavor are both all about the cherries. It’s sweet, medium bodied, and full of cherries. So you won’t find complexity here, but I thought it had a decent, robust flavor that avoided alco-pop land.

This pours a deep red color, with a fizzy pink head. Looks like cherry soda. Aroma promises sour, but the flavor does not deliver. Pretty sweet, just a touch of blasamic vinegar sourness and oak to combat the ripe cherry sweetness. I’m sure the sour snobs will whine about his being an alcopop, but it’s pretty drinkable, in my opinion.

I have never really been into lambics or fruit beers so I don’t really have much of a base to judge this against. Smells like melted down cherry gummi bears. Insanely sweet. Dark cherry colored pour with a medium pink head. The taste insanely sour, much like sour gummy candy. Noy really my cup of tea, but the girlfriend loved it.