Cuvée De Ranke

Best By Date July 2012; Sampled July 2008
A vigorous pour produces a creamy, two-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a hazy plum color that shows a murky, orange-tinged amber color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite tart smelling with a ample backdrop of fruit notes. A closer inspection yields a nice funkiness to this brew’s nose as well. Aromas of lactic acid, tamarind, sour plums, ripe pears, butyric acid, old sweaty leather, musty earth and a fruity ripe cheese note are each noticeable. A touch of soft, toasty, crushed malt is noticeable just a bit towards the finis of the aroma. While at first quite sour smelling a rich, complex fruitiness really starts to come to the for after a short while. This has a very nice nose to it, one which is complex and enjoyable.

Tart tasting, though not as much as many a hard Lambic. The ample fruitiness is still quite noticeable in the flavor with notes of ripe plums, pear, some dark grape flavors, . The finish is distinct and it took me a second to figure out what was going on; I think that it is a substantial bitterness that is noticeable, though not strong; it threw me off a bit because your typical sour beer, much less Lambic has a very reduced hop character. The bitterness in the finish is lightly astringent and almost has an herbal quality to it. In the finish some tannins and the sourness combine to create a sensation a bit like black tea does with a tannic, teeth coating astringency that is only light present in this beer. I really like how the lactic sourness couples with the fruit character. The funk, especially the Brettanomyces derived character is much reduced in the flavor at first, but as it warms up a bit it becomes more noticeable. Sweaty horse blanket notes add a light component, there is a slight mustiness and a bit of barnyard funk.

After the second pour a touch of funky, ripe, farmhouse cheese aromatics join the other, more noticeable notes in the aroma. Uriatic like notes of "cat-piss" become a bit more accentuated as it forms a back-drop to some of the other aromatic notes. The second pour also makes me realize that there is a soft sweetness still in this beer; it is not much, but I think it is what really accentuates the interesting fruitiness that this beer has.

I wonder what the base beer for this is? There seems to be a fair amount of residual hop character, including a herbal hop flavor and it make me wonder if the XX Bitter was included somewhere in here. Just a fantastic beer, it is very sour and funky, but not really "hard" and it is significantly different from the typical sour Belgian varieties of Lambic or Flemish Sour. It doesn’t have the malt depth of the latter, nor is it quite as funky/sour or pale (in malt character and fruitiness) as the former. A singular beer that makes me think of some of the new world sours, but it has a refined quality to it (perhaps it is the lack of overt / aggressive oak) that many of the American sours don’t quite reach. I could drink a ton of this and actually wish I had more than this one bottle so I could age a couple (that 2012 best by date seems to be calling to me).

a hazy golden amber with a very small frothy white head around the edges of the glass. no lacing. sour peachy aroma. flavor is sour but smooth and velvety. lemony, peachy. not very carbonated. nice mild woody flavor. palate is somewhat lifeless with little carbonation.

Thanks to beastiefan2k for bringing this bottle out. Deep orange beer. Lovely rich aroma. Soft spiciness over a lightly tart base. Citrusy nose with lots of lemon and a kiss of orange. Some soft cherry fruitiness and a little bit of balsamic sweetness as well. Earthy and brettified. Nice.

Thanks to miketd for sharing this. Poured a hazy orange with an off-white head. The aroma had a mild funk and tartness. Some metalic notes. The flavor starts tart but then has a very dry short bitter finish.

Bottle. Head is initially very small, fizzy, off-white, fully diminishing. Body is hazy light to medium amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain, caramel), moderately yeasty (barnyard, cobwebs, horseblanket), with light notes of sour cherry, band-aid, wood, hint of incense. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively/soft carbonation, lightly alcoholic, moderately astringent. Wow, what a disappointment. Fully expected mid-4’s on this one, but...virtually no head and zero lacing (corked and capped, but very little "pop" or carbo). Pleasant aroma, but very very light...some subtlety is there, but it’s a stretch to find much. Decent flavor balance, but surprisingly astringent (somewhat rough tannins). I really hope this was just a fluke dull bottle. And the thing is, I LOVE this brewery, more than most...I drink XX Bitter all the time, and the Kriek and Guldenberg are fantastic as well. Will try again and cross my fingers I guess.