Verhaeghe Caves

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

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.

Bottled. Hazy amber with a small white head. Wonderful balsamic aroma of tart black cherries and hay. Acidic cherries, mild vinegar, wood and lemon in the full flavour. Burnt sugar with tart notes of cherries in the long aftertaste.

(Bottle, BB 10-04-08) Pours a clear amber body with a spare white head. Aroma of cherry sourness, earthiness, and vinegar. Flavor of sourness, bit syrupy, and malt.

Nice brass colored beer with fine white head. aroma is sweet and slight sour, applels, rubarbe jam, cookies, sweet bread and some herbes. the taste is well balanced sweet and sour, it has hints of sweet cidre de normandie, with a malty caracter and a bready texture. Afthertaste is clean ans askes for more. Great summer beer.

A sweet and little soure beer. Drunk in bottle. It have something from a gheuze, but still has his own taste

25cl bottle labeled Caves het bier van Lier. Pours a clear, bright, ruby with goledn edges. Thick creamy head that quickly dwindles away. Immediately hit with balsamic, fruit, and vinous. That quickly calms down and allows sweet caramel malts to come through. Again, this aroma starts to fade and let something else come through, oddly sweet, almost smelling like sugar substitute. The aroma of wood now comes through quite apparently. Mouthfeel is thicker than you would imagine from the smell. I was expecting a dryness like you would find in an average Oud Bruin. Taste is quite sweet, with quite a bit of acid bite. Notes of earth and vegtables, perhaps sprouts. The odd sweetness that was in the aroma comes back in the flavor. The sweetness can be a little cloying, although it does atempt to back it up with the sourness. I understand that the original "caves" beer style from Lier is no longer brewed, but when it was it was not a sour beer. Knowing that, I am confused with what this beer is trying to be.

Bottle, 5.8% as Caves - het bier van Lier. Sweet, fruity, caramelly aroma with a nice underlying sourness. Muddy dark orange colour. No or very unstable head. The flavour is quite sour, nicely citric and vinegary. Quite sweet to balance. Reminds me of Goudenband, and is almost as good. This one has a lower ABV which can be a bonus.

Bottle. Red/pink with a small head. Aromas are sweet malts quickly followed by fruity sourness - not sure what fruit, though. Flavours are sour fruitiness, like cherry drop sweets. Has some smooth chocolate malts lurking in the background. Moreish.