Rodenbach Caractère Rouge

Brewed by Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm)
Style: Sour Red/Brown
Roeselare, Belgium

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Pours a clear ruby-shaded mahogny body. Tall pink-hued blond top. Initial aroma of a gently rounded acetic and lactic adcids. Then the berries kicks inn. Freshly crushed raspberries, tart sappy cherries, some floral notes, and a nice touch of peppermint. Delicious! Full body and complex, with armloads of inviting flavors. Berry-o-rama! Fresh and tart, sour and sweet. Nice subtle malt backbone. What a treat! [Shared bottle at Haandbryggeriet tasting session, thanks to Gustav J for sharing]

750 ml bottle. Pours a deep red with a pink head and lacing. Aroma is big fruit and sourness. I get a lot of cherry and raspberry. Tastes of bright, fresh, sour fruit juice. So good! Side note, I had this following New Glarus Serendipity. The ideas behind the beers are very similar and it showed in the end products. This beer is very much like a sour version of Serendipity. It really takes it to a whole new level.

750mL bottle, sent from Glouglouburp (thanks a lot, Dany), pours a deep dark amber / mahogany with a medium off-white head. Aroma is extremely potent berries, especially raspberries, with some moderate wild yeast, and a touch of sweetness. Flavour brings out intense raspberries and cherries, a light tartness and more fruitiness as mentioned. Intensely complex, featuring both aforementioned fruits. So highly drinkable and intensely fruity. Awesome - as good as Alexander.

Bottle. Hazy reddish liquid with small light pink head. Aroma of lemons, cherries, raspberries, apples, barnyard, grain, bread and wood. Taste is dry to light sweet and medium sour with notes of lemons, raspberries, cherries, wood and apples. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Nice stuff, lots of berries.

Finally the long search and wait are over. Here it is, guessing this is the latest batch, so I might have tasted it to young, but luckily got some cellared. I do have the feeling it was a bit young but here we go anyways: A 75cl bottle served in both a Chouffe glass and an old Belle-Vue Gueuze glass just for me. :) Medium to smaller sized, lively and quickly changing vanilla pink ish colored foamy head. Leaves some bubbles/very small islands on top of a light hazy amber red colored beer. Aroma has loads of red fruit, strawberry, cherries, raspberry, cranberry, oak, hint of yeast, light vinous, crispy, hints of grainy malts and corn. Flavours of first very red fruity, than yeasty and than more sour: yeast, caramel, oak, brown sugars, cherry, cranberry, bitter, more sour, wood hints of grains, light spiced and malts. Aftertaste has a yeasty wood ish undertone with some fruit tones, sourness, malts and citric herbs. Crisp and clean sourness. Low carbo, sprinkly first than right away a creamy mouthfeel, medium to lightly fuller body and a creamy texture. I think as I mentioned before that this beer is still a bit young, but after letting it breath for about an hour the beer becomes more balanced but still not optimal. A stronger sour touch which start fruity and ends sour that it seems to make the body a bit unbalanced and not thin but a bit thinner... It’s a decent beer and am curious to taste another one in about 2 years to see what it has lead up to.

Small sample. Big thanks to Ryan for giving me a small taste of this. Rodenbach sours have always been great but this one just goes to a different level. Great sour tartness without a ton of vinegar flavor to it. Just straight up awesome.

Bottle. Thanks Tommy! I can summarize my review in pretty quickly if you’ve ever tasted Cherry Blaster candies. Liquid Cherry Blasters. Poured a lovely ruby red colour with a small pinkish head. The Rodenbach vinegar nose is there straight away with a cherry and raspberry aroma hot on its heels.A wet woody smell in there too making it quite mouthwatering. The cherry and raspberry taste comes through at first and is followed swiftly by a woody vinegar like flavour making a fantastic sweet and sour taste.The berry taste remains quite strong in the aftertaste along with the sourness,great. Great beer

(bottle) pours a hazy ruby-amber colour with a frothy light pink head. aroma of strawberries, prawns, raspberries and caramel, with a light hint of gravy. flavour is very sweet, with big notes of bubble gum, strawberries, caramelized malts and a slightly lemony tart finish. medium-bodied with lively carbonation.

Bottle courtesy of Jay. Pours a red body with thin carbonated, off white bubbly lacing. Aroma is sweet candied fruit, raspberries, cherries and light tart. Mouthfeel is medium to thin with a nice carbonated feel and nice combination of cherries, raspberries and strawberries. This almost reminds me of New Glarus’s Serendipity. Very nice.

75cl bottle. Batch 2012 (second batch). Appearance: small unstable head, clear red beer. Nose: "coulis", red fruits, berries, very sweet, little sourness already noticeable, wood. Taste: starts rather fruity and with hints of wood, then finishes nice and sour. I had this beer multiple times, also had Batch 1, in my memory that was a rather superior beer. Afterwards I had Batch 2 rather fresh, which was a little to fruity and not sour enough in my opinion. But now I had the second batch again, but with some maturation, it improved a lot in taste and the sourness came in great again. So little advice for everybody buying this beer, keep it cellared for one year, maybe little more, and the beer will be a lot better!