Zoetzuur Flemish Reserve Ale

750ml bottle. Reddish brown with a tiny off white head. Sour apple jolly rancher aroma. Sweet and sour but more on the sweet side. Medium body with active carbonation and a clean tart finish. This was good but didn’t really have the pucker factor that I would like to see.

750 mL bottle from Total Wine. Brownish-orange pour with a thick, fizzy off-white head. Pleasantly sour aroma with a hint of wood. Surprisingly understated sour flavor but still quite good. Other flavors are very understated as well but include oak, earth, and apple cider vinegar (but only very faint on the end). Pleasant finish. In fact, pleasant is probably the best way to describe this beer overall. There’s nothing overwhelming but it is just that, pleasant.

750 ml bottle from EZ Liquors that I thought was a total steal at $4.99, well I was wrong. Poured an ugly murky swamp water brown body with a nice looking frothy off white head that left some serious lacing. Aroma was......well bad. Notes of spanish olives, soy sauce, honey, melted candle wax, rotting wet wood. Palate is nice enough, medium bodied...slightly creamy mouthfeel with lively carbonation and a sour finish. Flavor is tart and sour but the spanish olive and soy remains with some very faint cherry and perhaps some wood. I was hoping to find a true gem at a bargain basement price but I just found the basement with a piece of broken costume jewlery.

Single bottle purchased from the Friendly Mini Mart in Lakewood. I have seen this same 750 ml bottle chilling there on the bottom corner shelf for months. Just one lonely bottle. Gathering dust. So this could go either way, rocking awesome and aged perfectly, or terrible rank and overdue. Ok, the smells is pretty juicy. I got a good nose of strawberry banana when I poured it, upon closer inspection there is a healthy woody sour smell, deliciously earthy and robust, but still overloaded with some natural smelling of soft bananas and strawberries, as well as a little green apple from the sour aromas. The flavor, dear god the flavor. OH GOD THE FLAVOR! it is actually no longer sour. This tastes so mellow and earthy now, it is just fantastic. It has some really soft mossy earth notes, at first, then the most babyish soft malt flavorings topped off with an ending sweetness. Dear god, this is such a fantastic bottle.... And it is the only one I have ever seeeennnnn NOOO I’M DOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEEEDDDD!

Big bottel purchased in Spokane. Good "pop" from the cork. Moderate lasting brownish head on dirty red-brown beer. Sourish floral aroma with cherry and a hint of bubble gum. Lots of sour cherry up front in the taste, followed by more sour cherry and a soft cherry finish. Some chewy woody notes lower in the glass. Hints of whispery chocolate. Cries out for a plate of food to accompany it, or maybe I was hungry when I sampled.

750ml bottle. Pours a hazy copper color with a smallish white head. Aroma is funky cherry malty sweetness. Flavor is tart cherry, spice, caramel malty sweet in the finish. Nice balanced well made beer but could have been a little more on the tart side.

Opaque pinkish-tan color, minor foamy white head. Apple and cherry in the nose, some spice, near cidery... very similar to but a less desert-like New Glarus Belgian Red. Fllavor is tart, woody, lots of biting citrus and apple, some spice. Moderate palate but very prickly carbonation. Overall this is rather messy: the sweet fruits, sour elements, and spice combine for an odd mix, one that never gets beyond a summation of parts, and a contrasting summation at that.

Group share of a 750ml bottle at Two Brothers, Warrenville, IL. by manager Gabe. The sample was a hazy brown tone with some ruby hints showing through the glass. The head was modest and off white. The aroma was mixed fruit, tartness, malt, a touch of caramel and spice. The flavor was a combo of tart cherry and the sweetness of raisins/currants. It also presented a touch of earthiness and vinous notes. Although, not a big fan of sours, (probably from unfamiliarity) this was an interestingly complex brew.