Ichtegems Grand Cru

Brewed by Brouwerij Strubbe
Style: Sour Ale
Ichtegem, Belgium

Bottle from Pizza Port Bottle Shop. Clear ruby brown color with fizzy beige head. Mild cinnamon spice and balsamic aroma. Sweet and fruity malt flavor with a touch of raisin and baked bread. Finish is nicely covered with oak wood and wild yeasts. Your typical Flemish sour ale. Peppery, acetic finish, mild sourness. Enjoyable.

Poured almost brown with reddish hints. White head, with a small amount of lacing. Fairly floral aroma, hint of malt and fruit. Taste is much more fruit, subdued a bit by malt, then finished through with some sour fruits. Not overbearingly sour though. Maybe the barrel aging mellowed this out a bit. Normally this style is way too sour for me, but this was actually not bad. Could see this pairing quite well with a meal.

Bottle, Poatersgat. Rich dark ruby with flecks of lace and a dissipating head. Soft acetic aroma piquant with berry fruit, strawberry hints over faint dark malts. Bittersweet sour, berry fruit and apple edge softening into brown sugar, maybe liquorice, faint chocolate afters. Some dryness in there. Tingling carbonation with a sprinkle of sherbet. Mellow. Could do with the sour turning up a notch.

11.2 oz. bottle. Pours a mostly clear brown with ruby highlights around the edges when held against the light. Moderate off-white head that quickly faded to a ring and left a thin line with each sip. Pleasant aroma of sour cherry with some mild oak as well. The flavor is lightly sour cherry with some oak. Well carbonated and light on the palate, which suits this beer quite well. This is an enjoyable sour ale that would make a good entrance beer for someone who wants to try this style.

Brown in color with a mildly sour aroma that has some light cherries and wood. Dark fruit flavor, light wood, and a sour finish round this one off. Decent, but sub--par for the style IMHO.

This beer falls off on the mid-palate there’s no finish. Nice color, nice aroma of brown sugar ( I think) and vinegar. kind of a card board after-taste. Definetly not loving this. Slight cherry taste on the palate. This is PAASSSS in the future!

This was my first beer within this style. Shared a 75 cl bottle with a friend. Aroma and flavour was sour with apples, oak, vinegar, quite a lot of acidness.

Bottle. Pours a clear, dark ruby/brown with a beige/light brown head. Nice lacing. Aroma is sweet, fruity and acidic. (Red) wine notes. Really nice. Flavour is acidic, but not as much as the aroma, and it’s also quite (dry) bitter and malty. Didn’t like this combo too much at first (would have liked it to match the aroma more), but it grew on me, and I ended up appreciating it. Slight metallic notes and notes of plums appear as it warms. Finish is a dry red wine-bitterness. Overall a quite nice brew, which was on the brink of becoming cloying, but pulled through. 08-10-08.