Rodenbach Redbach

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

This Flemish Sour pours a deep red color from a 330ml bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is tart cherries, fruity and sweet. A medium bodied ale. Malts are fruity and sweet, cherries and cheery juice. Kind of sweet with some tartness. Slight touch of funk, mostly sweet fruits. Interesting beer. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is slightly tart.

From the ratings I’ve read, people seem to be confused about whether this a flemish sour ale. It is not. But that does not mean it is not a good beer. Pour is dark red with small white hue. Aroma is exciting--sour cherry bubble yum all the way! Flavor is equally sweet, sour, and tart. Very refreshing. One of the best fruit beers I have had. I guess I understand the low ratings if this claimed to be a flemish sour, but I dont think it does.

The best way to describe this: cherries: sour, tarte, sweet, vinegary, woody. A great beer that proves cherries can be used with a great amount of variety.

i was excited to see this at the grocery store in seattle. poured a ruby red with a huge cherry nose. flavor is thin with almost only the cherry thing going on. i have never had the grand cru which is suppose to be great. the other rodenbachs have been much less desireable as this was. cherry soda flavored beer with barely any sourness to it at all. a huge disapointment.

Bottle, of the green variety. Dark red with a very thin pink head. Yeah, so I was out drinking with TimE and some other people a few nights ago and we were at this bar in Ebisu with a really loud, crappy band. I head to the bathroom at one point and get a call from this girl that I had met the night before. "Hey, Ana-chan!" "Chyaddo! What are you doing?" "I’m peeing right now. You?" "Wha...peeing, what is that?" "Oh, never mind. So what’s up?" Turns out she and her sister are in Shibuya where I live. I figure I’ll go have a drink with them, then I don’t even have to pay for a cab ride home. We hit Belgo, one of my favorite bars, for a few hours before collectively deciding to go to my place. I’m highly drunk at this point. Now, I know what you guys are thinking, but it didn’t go that way. I knew going in that I had no chance of scoring the trifecta: they were sisters and one of them was into a friend of mine. But that’s not what I let the doorman think! I strutted in with a shiny clubbing shirt with a chick on each arm, like a total pimp asshole. We broke at the door and they walked in first, and then I turned to Doorman and flashed him a thumbs-up and a shiteating grin before going upstairs. My intent had been to share this and other beers with them, as this one was new to me and I had read the reviews. The strong cherry taste and very limited sourness would probably have appealed to Ana and Nana (awwww...), as they are getting a crash course in beer from Yours Truly and couldn’t appreciate something like a Rodenbach Grand Cru just yet. But - we just came upstairs for a while and watched TV and chatted, and I completely forgot about beer! Haha. I wasn’t missing that much with this one for myself, anyway. Flemish sours are awesome, but this is clearly more of a fruit beer as others have pointed out. Some mild acidic qualities in the finish, thick mouthfeel but it doesn’t make up for the very simplistic and unchallenging fruit flavor. Kind of like thick and mildly alcoholic cherry Kool-aid. I take it back, that’s an overstatement, but you’re starting to get my drift here...

12oz bottle pours cherry red (whaddya know) with a pink head and strong cherry aromas. The flavor is so much cherry its gross. Sour and sweet cherries overtake the palate as you feel like you’re drinking cherry juice.

I think Rodenbach missed the mark when they were making this as a flemish sour, because there’s no way in hell this is a flemish sour. I can safely say this is a fruit beer through and through. Aroma is cherries, only slightly acidic (in the smallest of ways), and some sweetness comes through. Appearance is a dark reddish hue with barely any head. Mouthfeel was a little thick, but not enough to be considered cloying. Flavors were good enough with part cherries, part medicinal and very sweet. The sweetness is just simply too amped up to be a flemish sour (where’s the sour?!?). Still, to rate it on a hedonistic scale, it’s drinkable and enjoyable. It would receive much lower marks had I rate it on what it claims to be.

Deep red, pink head, no lacing. Nice sweet cherry aroma, a little sourness like vinegar. While the taste is mainly cherry, there is a light background of sour/tart and hints of woodiness at the end. Crisp then tacky sweet at the finish.