Verhaeghe Caves

Brewed by Verhaeghe
Style: Sour Ale
Vichte, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

25 cl bottle, via jbrus. Pours a clear amber body under a small fizzy off-white head that faded to a thin film. The nose is sweet and sour, vinous, and showing a little brett. The flavor is rather sweet, with a little tinge of sour funkiness on the finish. Cherry skins and pie filling abound. While the sweetness is pretty heavy, it does trail off in the finish making it quite drinkable. Mouthfeel is slightly sticky with moderate fizzy carbonation. Overall, a nice authentic Flemish Sour.

25 cl bottle @ Plan-B, Copenhagen: BB 04/07. Pours amber/copper with a sprinkly fading head. Aroma is very sweet & vinous, reminds me of danish gløg. Red wine, fruity sour & soft bodied. Sweet and sticky also. A bit dusty/woody - very matured & old feel, but just good all around. So sippable & nice!

Bottled. Amber colour with small beige head, which quite fastly vanishes almost completely. Aroma is wood, nectar and really sour fruity notes. Flavour is malts, sour fruits, spices and some vanilla. Once it warms up it gets quite rasp- and strawberries.

Bottle @ Plan B. BBE 20-04-07. Pours a hazy amber with no head at first. There are lots of bubbles reaching for the surface, slowly generating a soft, milky head. As the bubbles surge towards air, the head stays for quite some time. Aroma is sweetish, slight strawberries, wood, tart brett character. Okay mouthfeel. Flavour is rather tart, but with quite a balancing sticky sweetness. Light spiciness with wood and that sense of strawberries. Very soft and easy to drink.

Aha! Didn’t realise this was made by Verhaeghe. Red amber pour with a white halo. Intensely heady, mouldering apple aroma, wth fruit juice sweetness, vinegar and barrelwood. Brine, apple juice and iron. Sweet-sour, but leaning towards sweet, with caramel and more yeasty pear/apple humming fruit booziness. Bit too syrupy and a bit synthetic, but a pleasantly odd commercial sour ale.

Bottle from Drunken Geese. After seeing David have it at Moeder I was a little curious, so I brought one back. Sour balsamic vinegar, cherry, yeast and a hint of candi sugar in the nose. Again balsamic vinegar with sweet caramel, reminds me of a red wine gravy I’ve made a couple times with caramelized brown sugar in it, some apple notes also. Nice syrupy palate and a bit of yeast in the finish. Maybe just a little too sweet for my liking, being my only gripe, but not all that bad really.

Bottle, Moeder Lambic. Hazy amber. Light 1cm white head. Sweet and sour blend. Quite caramelly on top of fruity flavours that take the shape of mild apple first, but after a few sips is rather obviously acetaldehyde. Bready yeastiness, not very woody and too subtle in its acidity. Still, the taste seems better than the nose, but this remains my least favourite Verhaeghe.

250ml bottle. Red coloured with a white head. Aroma is sour, woody and vinegary. An extremely sweet beer that is never too sweet and has a long and sour finish. Lots of flavour and better than expected. Very good.