Zoetzuur Flemish Reserve Ale

Brewed by De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Sour Ale
Lochristi, Belgium

750 ml. brown, corked and caged bottle. No freshness date seen. Fake wax cork too. Poured out a rusty reddish brown color, with a sticky tan colored head. Aromas are of sour cherries, some pipe tobacco, Belgian funk, pomegranate juice. Flavors are of pomegranate juice, sour cherries, slight oak barrel. Decent funky flavors, medium mouthfeel. Decent Flanders ale overall.

Pours a ruddy brown with a healthy cream colored head, dense enough, thinning slowly. The nose is lightly malty, with a strong enough dose of something on the sour side. Lightly fruity with some caramel and miscellaneous fruity dark malt character. Aha, brett. Earthy. The mouthfeel is full enough, not too viscous, not too thin, a bit creamy. Wow, this is much more sour than I had thought given the nose! Particularly, a shot of vinegar. Strong cherry-like vinegar sharpness. A good bit of darker malt, again, caramel, maybe even some chocolate. As it warms, chocolate covered sour cherries comes to mind. A bit creamy. Very fruity. A tart zing. Lingering tartness. I’ve never had a beer sour in quite this way so much. Perhaps the closest I can think of is Bells Cherry stout. An interesting beer worth a try. Perhaps one to age?

pours a hazy rust color with a light tan head. it sticks a round for a bit then leaves behind lacy racing stripes as it drifts off. dry bretty nose with notes of tartness (green apple and cherries), wet wood (sort of a ’wet cork’ aroma), malt sweetness and cinnamon. initial flavor of fake cherry followed by lemon tartness, yeast, wood, iron and earth. it’s very candy-like with a dry finish. well balanced (although i’d like it a bit more sour!). medium to full bodied for the style with a very creamy mouth feel

Draft at Max’s 72 Hour Belgian Beer Fest. Cloudy reddened blond. Aroma starts with candy and candied fruits and quickly moves to sour fruit. Taste is Strong tart fruits, some candyish or bubblegummy notes, grains, soft funk and light barnyardy flavors. I was getting soft sour berry mixed with lemon at points through this. Body is medium with some sour ale dryness and lighter acidic notes. The finish is more sour fruit, soft yeast, funk and barnyard. .

Love these De Proef beers! The Saison Imperiale and the Wild Flemish are also very good, but I guess this has been my favorite so far. Huge Malty-Sour-Cherry-Brett nose followed by an awesome palate of cherries and rubber with a fizzyness on the tongue. Cherry malt finish. Maybe not as complex as the other two I’ve had, but very drinkable in comparison. I feel like I can’t wait to share this one even with my friends who’s taste buds may not be quite as sophisticated.

oh lovely. what a nice beer. i can’t remember when i enjoyed a beer this much. (of course it’s also true that at this stage of my geriatric decrepitude i can’t remember where my parents live).

this is a big-bodied fruit punch, with an aroma of good cigars that have steeped themselves unto pulp in a brine of sea salt and sponge cake. just lovely. it’s the color of mature rust just before it crumbles into dust, and trends to far more clarity than what we expect from the promises of politicians. good head and carbonation all around, the lace clings to the glass like toilet paper on a teepeed tree after a good rain.

there is a gusting 20 knott aroma that streams around my nose like standing oceanside before a storm: smelling like a cherry packed band-aid box. it’s an earthy kind-of aroma, like a dank plywood compost bin on a warm fall day-- full of earth and apples; this is a gritty beer that tastes like it wasn’t brewed, but grown in peat and pig manure, in moldy darkness alongside mushrooms and bone-white salamanders.

the flavors have the kind of bulk sought after in NFL linebackers; this is a true sipping beer: creamy, metallic and sweet, part sweet marsala wine, part unfiltered cider and part primordial zulu compress of bugs and baobab roots prescribed for compound fractures. zoetzuur has notes of cocoa, tin, and tea (one is reminded of the export commodities of ceylon).

indeed a lovely beer: swirl, sniff, sip. repeat. swirl, sniff, sip, repeat.......

750 ml in Duvel glass. Hazy garnet red with lasting head and lace. Ripe cherry, wood, earth, yeast, and spice aroma. Spicy, sour cherryish, woody, red wine, and more. Very complex. Medium body and carbo. Very very enjoyable strong example of the Flemish red style. Will have this again.

Head: 1/4" amber persistent head, very light lace Color: hazy light brown Aroma: brett, leather, sour smell Flavor: balanced light sweet/sour, cannot taste fruit. Slightly bitter finish (cherry pits?) Palate: Soft carbonation and light body. Hops: No bitter, flavor or aroma prevalent Alcohol: No order or taste. No solvent. Dangerously easy drinker. Good gateway beer for novice Belgian brett.