Defiant Flemish Sour Cherry

Brewed by Defiant Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Pearl River, New York USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Tap at Brewtopia 2007: Hazy deep orange pour topped by a thin light tan film. Tart aroma of sour cherry skins, some tannins, and a lactic hint. The flavor is slightly disappointing though. Extremely mild, tartness is mild and seems subdued a bit. Mild cherry skin background. Estery hint with a hint of grains in the finish. You can only identify cherry character in the aroma. If not told, I don’t think I would’ve guessed this is brewed with cherries, just has some cherry character. This stuff is missing something.

Served on cask. Pours a light ruby body little head. Aroma is sweet sour cherry funk and some woodiness. Wood in the flavor but more like a cherry vinegar. eh.

Bottle, picked up at Defiant. Pours a clear, reddish amber with no head. There’s cherry, funk/brett, flowers and wood. Notes of tart sour cherry, a little salt, citric acidity, a touch of vinegar and some brett/horse sweat character. Light bodied with soft carbonation. It’s cool to see American brewers attempt these styles.

Sample provided by jasonp. Hazy amber body with a small beige head. The nose is sweet with cherries, light horseblanket, toffee and berries. The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly tart with cherry, cotton candy and caramel. Medium body is soft with light carbonation. Solid effort.

I hate giving it a bad rating because fruit beers are not my thing, and this was no exception, but this just wasn’t drinkable at all. If someone told me it was a cherry flavored Cider I probably would have enjoyed it more. Fizzy and sweet, it reminded me of Evil Eye Red............still have to give Neil his props for trying his hand at just about any and every style out there.

This beer really wasn’t for me. It was filled with tart cherries in the aroma. The beer was bitingly tart at the end. Smooth, though, as it was from the cask. Very fruity. I was pleased that there was no cough-syrup flavor or sweetness, as sometimes happens in these cherry beers.

Cask and Spuyten Duyvil - a rather subdued and one-dimensional flemish red - not particularly sour, just a bit of tart cherry skins and pits - light grain flavor, and some earthy notes - not a whole lot going on, but light and refreshing - probably good "gateway" flemish red.

Thanks for sharing Jason. Reddish copper, thin white head. Nose on this was nice with sweet cherry and oats that lay on lighter wafts of oak, rose petals, and musty funk. Flavor doesn’t live up to the aroma with upfront sour cherry vinegar flavors that blend on hints of oak and salt. Light to medium bodied, light carbonation, sour finish. Has potential, but just needs some tweaking here and there...

Ruddy orange-gold color. Nice lacing. Gently tart, grapefruit aroma. Smooth, light cherry in the taste. Authentic and nice, and subtle, but very unexciting. While this beer has no noticeable flaws, it really doesn’t have that much interest, either. Nothing grabs at you and makes you want to take another sip. Still, it’s always good to see more brewers doing things like this.

Color is a lightly murky amber. Low carbonation, from corked bottle. Has a really wonderful nose of rich, perfumy, potpourri cherries. Palate is prickly, with some light sour apple notes, tasting of brown sugar and black cherry skins, with a light acidity that barely bites the tongue. Overall I get a big creamed cherry perfume taste. Quite good.