Rodenbach Vin de Céréale

Brewed by Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm)
Style: Sour Ale
Roeselare, Belgium

Bottle (375ml - corked). Shared with blankboy, garthicus and tupalev, via trade with jerc & mabel. Clear amber, no head. Solid aroma - like a sour apple cider, definite but not overpowering alcohol, and some dry burnt funk. The taste - so odd - like a filtered gooooooze with fresh grainy wort added, funky, sour, strongly acidic and moderately boozy. Fairly light bodied but solid acidity with moderate booziness in the finish - the grain really takes over after a while - odd, but good.

from crackedkettle.com; 2004 vintage - pours a clear amber orange colour without foam; aroma of distilled cherries and vinegar; sweet and very sour; oily and medium-bodied with a low carbonation; very long woody finish, sweet and sour again with notes of sour cherries and warming alcohol

Bottle. 37.5cl. [Vintage 2004].
Clear medium orange color with a virtually none appearance, virtually none lacing, off-white head. Aroma is light to moderate wood, oak, sour apple. moderate vinegar, tart. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and acetic (vinegar) with a long to average duration, and a dry dry finish. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is flat. Very nice. (210408)

Nice clear brown colour. No head. Small carbonation. Like a dessert wine. Intresting...

<i>A Mes rate: Bottle opened to celebrate Manchester United winning the Premiership, City getting battered 8-1 and Bolton sticking the knife in with an injury time equalizer. What a day!</i>
Looks almost like a fine cognac with a slight film and a rim of white foam. A big snowstorm of bubbles when swilled. Amazing aroma. Full of huge grainy notes and barrely sourness. Incredibly dry but very sweet at the same time. Almost desert wine sweetness. Really powerful. Strawberry like fruity notes and some fairly clear caramel. So dry it dries your lungs out as you sniff. Flavour is utterly superb. Big tannins and wooden barrel sourness. Incredible rice crackers character and a huge sour sting round the sides of the mouth which give an amazing channel for all the sweet stuff to fall into which then slips down the throat in such a dreamy fashion pulling along with it all the cereal and grain which is almost almost instantly kicked to death by more of the (proper) Rodenbach sourness. Lingering rice and paper (in a good way honestly) close the curtains on an incredible performance. It throws you completely off kilter at first but once you adjust it’s clear that this is exceptional. A balanced assault of craziness and I love it. This is probably the 10th time I have had this so I figured I should get round to rating it. Stunning stuff that is going to make for an interesting aging experiment.

Bottle into tulip, enjoyed at ’t Brugs Beertje. Imagine me as a bobble head, vascilating all over the place about this beer. For a long time, I couldn’t decide whether I actually enjoyed drinking it. Intellectually, I was there, but sensually I was split. On the one hand, it had the sour flavors that I was hoping were there, which is all to the good. On the other hand, it had that damn cereal. Grains, grains all over the place. They hit you hard and firm right after the initial Flemish sour burst of warm cherry (with some balsamic coated twigs in there too). It was incredibly impressive how exactly it tasted like a field of wheat and barley, exactly like the unfermented source sugars (with a little corn starch mealiness that was not impressive). The thing is, I still don’t know if I liked it. Once I got used to it (which took almost the whole bottle), it was a wonderful counterpoint to the sourness, but for a long time it just continued to shock with every sip how it could transition from the familiar to the wholly foreign so quickly and so perfectly. Smell was oily vinegar, acetone (not pleasant), berries, twigs, and Sutter Home pink zinfandel wine (with the screw cap and everything). Entirely flat on the pour; transluscent orange glowing copper. This beer would go amazingly well with white chocolate; the somewhat fatty and not-bitter sweetness would mesh perfectly with the complex juxtapositions in the beer. The very end of the finish was like a nutty white cheese, like a combination of gouda and limberger. It’s a work of beer art: challenging if not exactly comforting, but supremely well-executed, original, and unique. And maybe the only 4.2 in my ratings that I’d hesitate to have again (while simultaneoulsy getting excited to have again).

Captain Crunch anyone? Pours a clear darkish golden with little head. Smells like some fruit mixed with Captain Crunch. Sweet, acidic, light sharp sour. Pretty good, Mikey likes it.

Bottle, Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fà, Rome, Italy. Light golden. Mildly aromatic, with hardly any depth, some sour fruits. Mild malts, some sourness. Not sweet like the grand cru. Very little depth, not alive. Ok taste. A bit dull. Just an ok beer.