Served from jug at the Struise farm. Cloudy dark amber, minimal head. Aroma of vinegar and hay. Tart with some malt sweetness. Hugely complex flavour of horse blanket, lemon and black currant. Midly oaky. A 5y/o sample waslivelier and spritzier than the 25 y/o sample that had more juiciness. Simply fantastic!

Bottle shared at the Struise Farm with Urbain, Mesandsim and Duff. According to Urbain this has had 1 year of secondary fermentation and 4 years on cask, making it 5 years old. It is orange / pale brown/gold with no head. The aroma is of cherries and a slight almond marzipan. It brought to mind an aged Chianti wine with the red cherries from Sangiovese. Brett and Rodenbach yeasts used on separate primary fermentations means that this beer has great complexity and character. Once you then actually drink it, this lambic quality kicks in. The finish just goes on and on and on. There is some caramel (caramelised cherries, said Duff), but it’s not really sweet. Some juiciness in the mouth. The fruit is just stunning. Bit of funk on the aroma. Not any mustiness on aroma. Great acidity on a lasting finish. Phenomenol. This will be on commercial sale from the Struise farm once they have their shop there set up and I for one will be going and buying this. Urbain then gave us a sample of his 20 year old version that the 5 year old is based on. More brown in the colour, but you can tell it’s the same beer. Less fruity, but still plenty of vinous cherries. It is like the most perfect red wine. Acidity has preserved it well. More almond marzipan. The fruit is just so stunning and the smoothness of the flavours. Little bit of spice/perfume. Simply, one of the best beers I’ve had. Thank you Urbain so much for letting us try this 4.9/5.0

A Mes rate: Samples from two 1.5 litre bottles at the Farm.
Some from a 2005 bottle, some from a recent bottling of the original 20 year old barrel that was left in Urbain’s garage and finally, Urbain was generous enough to indulge me and blend the two so I was lucky enough to have three different goes at this one. Full write up to come, all I will say for now is:
Wow.

Shared by Urbain at Struise farm. Color is rusty red cedar with light haze but mostly clear, and a medium dark tan head. Nose is downright amazing hybrid of the flemish red Rodenbach yeast, minerally, earthy apples and funky toast, mixed with a true lambic farmhouse/barnyard funky brett and lacto note. Fresh cedar and oak all around, very rich and tart. Sour and acidic... downright awesome acidity, not simply acidic but incredibly flavorful cedar wood and sour apple cider vinegar, and full bodied and rich on the palate. Outstanding.

Oh my oh My where do i start. HUGE thanks to Urbain for letting me try this at the Struise Farm... Wonderfully subdued red/brown colour... Complex lambic fruity Cherry nose ... Some sweetness behind the tart woody complex woody maltyness and just a touch of sherry... I couldnt identify it as cherry but its definitly packed full of fruit and some metalic blood tones ... Sour Ales are not my normal choice... but the complexity won me over in many ways... I’d not drink it regularly but id jump at chance to have more of this.

As an aside i took a very small amout (in open bottle) away for my wife to try , but she didnt want to It being sour. SO i ended up drinking it 2 days later, Oh i was suprised by how it had kept its complexity and developed a little caramel and oddly lost some of its sourness.