Rodenbach Redbach

Formerly brewed at Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm)
Style: Fruit Beer
Roeselare, Belgium

Serve in Flute

From a 330L Bottle. Best Before 8/24/07. Mostly transparent, marachino cherry red colored pour with a thin layer of creamy, gently pinkish head. Aroma of marachino cherries and a distinct cherry jolly rancher candy character. Em says it smells and tastes like a cherry jolly rancher, and she’s right. No other words or descriptions could possibly describe this better. Medium bodied, mildly carbonated moutfeel with a sparkling crispness; mild balsamic vinegar - cherry jolly rancher candy. Too sweet.

From bottle at the SPTR, pours dark purple color with a little head. Great sour cherry flavor with no real finish.

Bottle bought at Sam’s in Chicago. Pours a cloudy black currant color with a frothy pink head. Aroma of tart cherries, with some mild funky sourness. Not a bad aroma, but really one dimensional. Flavor is alright, but more of the same. Candied cherries (like the ones in fruitcake), and quite tart. Kind of bleh, but drinkable.

Not the brewer’s best work, but mediocre Rodenbach is still pretty good. This 3.5% abv fruity Flemish is the beer equivalent of a sorbet or a palate cleanser. In fact, you could use it for that purpose at a beer dinner, I reckon. It’s light, low in alcohol and refreshing. It poured a muddy cerise with fat bubbles and a tall frothy head. The cherries come through so strongly in the aroma that I’d half-suspect they’d used an extract if the Commercial Description didn’t say otherwise. It has a maraschino cherry strength or perhaps those little Cherry Lips candies, tart and prickly with marzipan almond notes. Just didn’t smell entirely natural to me. Slick and oily mouthfeel. Nice sweet-sour flavour balance. Lots of sherbety fruits in the mid-palate and a big fizzy finish. Some marzipan and cherry ice cream. Good residual sugars to off-set the krieken but doesn’t fall into the usual trap of being too sweet. The tart finish gets the juices flowing. A beer for certain occasions. (33cl bottle courtesy of Bridge)

Bought at binnys on clark. 12 oz bottle. Nice dark red body with large dark pink head. Aroma is funky, cherries, sour, not bad. Lots of rodenbach qualities in the flavor but much more subdued. A little syrupy, some wine notes, cherries. As it warms does not get better and becomes soda like. Body is medium all the way through with little to no carbonation. You’ve got to love that aroma though.

Pours red with a pinkish head. Not well balanced. Decent cherry flavor, but no sour, no beer essence. More like a flavored malt liquor than a beer. More like soda than beer, I’d say. But it has elements of a good kriek. Still drinking the beer brought back from Alaska nearly 3 months later!

carbonated flemish sour ale without the kick...or sour...or ale...Kind of a kids drink really? I thought this was made by Duvel

I was recommended this beer by my local beerologist. I loved the aroma, the color. After a few sips I started to enjoy the cherry flavor. Definitely, for me, and after dinner beer.