Bios Old Brown

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Ertvelde, Belgium

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

250ml bottle. Bottle labeled 19/07/07. Poured a medium reddish / brown color with a small sized off white head. Aromas took me by surprise. I was expecting the ’normal’ Brown Ale profile. With this one, I got wood (oak), cherries, toffee and I would call this one vinous. Tastes start off with stronger sour cherries then give way to chocolate (mmm, chocolate covered sour cherries), wood, and some other dark fruits. Nice cherry presence with lots of wood. If only every brown ale had similar tastes like this! Chalk this up as one of those pleasant surprises.

This is an interesting ale that I would’ve pegged as a Flemish Sour because of the flavor. It pours a medium brown body, highlighted in ruby, with a slender beige head. The aroma is toffee, oak, sour cherries, and a hint of dark chocolate. Tart and woody on the tongue, the sourness becomes more pronounced over the toffee and the chocolate recedes until the sweet-sour finish. Interesting and tasty both.

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Draught at The Bishops Arms, Gothenburg. Dark amber with a nice head. A flourish aroma with butterscotch. A bit thin and a lot of bubbles. Toffe-flavour with juniper-berries.

Dark amber color with a nice creamy head. Aroma is pleasant from toffee, vanilla and mild chocolate. Flavor is mild from toffee, and this ale stays mild all the way through the finish.

Draught at The Bishops Arms, Göteborg, Sweden. Dark brown in colour. Vague yeast aroma. Sour-sweet flavour but slight sugary with notes of juniper and dried fruits.

I am actually reviewing Bios Copper Ale, a brew that I was able to get once several years ago and never found again. It was excellent, in a Petrus Oud Bruin/Rodenbach way. It was called a copper ale, and the taste was very metallic, but pleasing. It is probably the same as the Old Brown listed here, although the bottle was different. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had the copper ale, I have looked for it forever since and I wonder if they still make it, or if the Old Brown is the same.