Rodenbach Vin de Céréale

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

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Honestly, I don’t remember having this...but it’s in the notes section around 2009...which means I was probably right proper drunk. Being Rodenbach, aged, and sour, I’m sure it was fantastic!

A noticeable brew for sure - strong sour, vinous flavor, with some grain taste as well - as advertised by the name. Thanks to whoever it was paid $40 for a small bottle of this and shared it at Brian’s birthday. Better them than me. This brew spotlighted my mixed feelings about top shelf sour ales. It calls itself a wine, and tastes an awful lot like wine, and is priced similar to a very good bottle of wine. So why not just have some wine instead? There are very good bottles out there for 1/4 of the cost. This is a beer, masquerading as a wine, and then charging you for its ability to escape categorization.

2004 Vintage. 375mL bottle at DHVL, pours a fairly clear amber / copper with a small beige head. Aroma of sweet liqueur, like cognac and sherry, red wine notes, and some sour red fruits -- you can certainly detect the higher alcohol. Flavour is very vinous, with complex notes of red wine, sweet liqueur and oak. Very sweet and sort of cidery, with also prominent vinous and liqueur notes. Bizarre stuff - the body is very thin, with an almost cloying sweetness. The aromatics were a lot more pleasant to me, while the body kind of cloys. Weird stuff - fairly good in small samples.

no head at all. slight pinkish colour. aroma of red fruits, raspberry, strawberry and somewhat sour. delicious long sour taste with aftertaste of raspberry and some balsamico. great stuff! 37.5 cl bottle / notes from backlog

I have caught a double-agent. The owner of "d’Afspraak" in Mechelen told me it was hiding in his cellar. Un-be-liev-able it hadn’t yet been discovered there. It’s a wine pretending to be a beer, and a beer posing as a wine. It is neither and yet both. It doesn’t don the expected white hat, nor does it wear the classic frivolous lace. No-nonsense attire, and a nice tan to boot. Suspicious already, I wanted to sniff it out. And oh, this Rodenbach was good at its job; it confused me even more. Cider, oak, chocolate, grass, malt: it was all there. An eau de toilette that could conceal anything and everything. Now that I had my teeth into it, I was determined to reveal it as a fraud, but it threw everything it had at me. Sweet and alluring, sourly contradicting my accusations, flirting and warm, such a smooth operator. Nearly had me calling it honey. I may have caught it, but I have to admit it seduced me - like you might expect of the goodlooking spies in a James Bond movie. And I don’t regret it one bit, nor will I ever turn it in. There are few of them left in the world, and less every day - you’ll be lucky if you ever get to see one, let alone catch it.

2004 helt unikt otippat. Lenner drar fram den när vi är på väg hem. Kjellander tycker att vi hetsar. Som rodenbach Grand cru men lite mer av allt

04 bottle shared by Barry at a tasting. Poured blood red with light head and lacing. Aromas/taste of vinegar, apples, malts, acetone, leather, and oak. Light mouthfeel with lots of sour fruits and other weird stuff. I think this may have been a little too old or im not that crazy about rodenbach.

2004 vintage bottle courtesy of Barry, shared at Franks. Pours a deep amber with no head or pacing. Aroma is muted ice cider - faint apples, light vinegar and sweet sugar. Mouthfeel is medium to light with notes of apple, light muted sour fruit, and sugar. Interesting.

Opened my bottle at Woodshop 7 last year. Pours a deep orange with no bubbles or carbonation at all. Lots of apple and some vinegar and sugar in the aroma. Taste is not the distinctive Rodenbach flavor profile I’ve noticed in the other beers of theirs I’ve had. More toffee, malt and just a bit of fruit. Overall, a beer that was probably a lot better a few years ago.

Pour is an apple juice looking amber with no head. The nose is of green apple, sweet caramel malt, light vinegar, sour cherries and light acetic acid. Flavor follows the nose, sweeter and brighter cherries and less acetic. Creamy medium to full body with decent carbonation. Rather sweet and a touch vinegary with light carb to balance.