Verhaeghe Duchesse De Bourgogne

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

Thanks to HogTownHarry. Appearance: Dark ruby red, small white head. Aroma: Prunes, grapes, tart cherry, winter fruit. Flavour: Sour, bitter, mango, brown sugar, candy floss, juicy - very interesting, in fact my wife actually tried this, she said it’s the nicest beer she tried!

reddish brown colored beer with offwhite head smells sourish and malty and fruity tasts sweetish-sourish of some mixed fruits and some alcohol, somme woodyness aftertaste sweetish sourish, the fruityness is no more so like mixed fruits, more like pineapple, and a bit winy tasts special, between ale and lambic

Bottle, red coulor, truffel, sweet .. maybe too sweet, not a complex taste. But anyway a nice beer!

Bottle. pours dark red color with small off-white head. great sour/tart flavors from various fruits. what you expect from a sour ale.

On tap. Deep ruby brown, aroma is acidic and malty. Tart taste with some cherries, brown sugar, some raisin, and woodiness. Not a huge fan.

Pours deep brown with a red tinge and no real head. Aroma is surprisingly vinegary, somewhere nearer balsamic vinegar than malt vinegar. Taste is initially vinegar sour, with tart cherries and a grapey wine-like character and sharp apples. The sour start is balanced out by a pretty sweet finish, raiseny and belgian yeast. Lots going on in there, a complex and tasty beer.

Dark ruby-brown,with a nice tan head. Sour and slightly sweet aroma, like sour fruit, with some earthy notes. Nice. Taste of sour plums/prunes and rasins, with a hint of wood. Not a particularly biting, caustic or acidic sour ale - actually rather sweet. Really enjoyable.

This was the only rating I ever deleted. I had this, well probably just about 5 years ago. At that time I could have sworn I had my first experience with a spoiled beer. Straight up I though there is no way in the world a beer is meant to taste the way that one did. And I rated it accordingly, really badly. A little while afterwords I erased the rating thinking it was unfair to rate a bad bottle (whether it was actually bad or not is hard to say at this point). Well, now I am back. I have had Duchesse many times since then, bottles and tap and well I still can’t really get into it. I love a good Flanders red but this has never done it for me. At one time the regular Rodenbach was in that category as well but eventually I loved it, yet this I have not become the biggest fan of. This rating is from tap the Foundry, a good beer bar in KC. Poured into a DdB glass, has a dark, dark red color, clear once you get past the darkness. Has a medium sized head that fades and leaves a sticky lacing. It has a really thick dark cherry sweetness with a barely aceto balsamic vinegar. Oh, just too sweet and balsamic without the sour and acidic parts of a Flanders Red. Taste has that same sweet cherry and a sugary sweet balsamic. Eh, just can’t do it, too sweet and doesn’t have the sour aspects I want from my Flanders Red.