Zoetzuur Flemish Reserve Ale

750ml bottle $9.99. Nice red color with almost no head. It smells great, cherries, sour some muddy vinegar. The taste is indeed sweet-sour but leans toward neither side. It is just barely sweet and barely sour, good balance. Nice cherry note, reminds me a tad of Jolly Pumpkin biere de mars. This was money well spent. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 08-29-2008 02:26:19

Pours a dark and ruddy looking reddish mauve color. A consistent, foamy, light tan settles to a small rim, delicate, sticky lacing marking the glass. The nose gives alot of oak and vanilla overtones to a bed of tart cherries and dark fruit, with lactic yeast and hints of brown sugar malt. Flavors continue this pursuit, lightly tart from the cherry, but well balanced and soft overall from the sweet dark malts and the easy going barrel influence. Lactose plays a big role, as it always seems to in this style, but there seems to be some acidity lacking as it never delivers that "kick" to the underneath of the tongue that the best examples of the style do. Medium bodied and perhaps just a hair overly carbonated, the mouthfeel is otherwise quite nice. Very solid beer, but far from elite within the genre.

750ml bottle at Novare Res. Pours a dark hazy reddish brown. Tart aroma, with funk, fruitiness, and oak notes. Flavor is sweet fruity, with a nice balance of tartness. My general impression of this beer was unfavorable mostly due to the fact that I had a Panil before it, which was leaps and bounds better. This just didnt stack up all that well. Mostly just for balance reasons, it’s not as mature a beer as I’d hoped.

Bottle. [thank you, after4ever]
Pours a great red, slightly brownish. But it is bordering on kriek colur. Great, frothy, off-white head with super duration. Sweet sugary aroma, brownish malts, light tartness, raspberries, strawberries and plums. Highish carbonation, dry mouthfeel with limited fullness. Flavour is a bit weak compared to the aroma. Tarness and wet malts at first, then sugary sweetness before a fine, dry, fruitiness in the aftertaste. With strawberries and raspberries. Fine and really refreshing.

Pour: 750 mL bottle to La Chouffe tulip. Rusty brown color, sort of like raspberry preserves. One finger of beige head fizzes to a fluffy halo and leaves some nice lacing. Nose: Brown sugar sweetness peeks through a shroud of tart cherries and fruitcake. There’s a very slight earthiness too. Mouth: If the aroma translated exactly over to the flavor this beer would be world class, but it doesn’t quite. Seems a little thin and fizzy on the palate, leading to unsupported flavors. What I can taste is lightly tart with black cherries and a trademark bretty earthiness in the finish. What’s missing is the malt/ester sweetness dueling with the vinegary sharpness that I get from Duchesse or La Folie when I consider the stylistic pinnacle. Not bad but definitely a tier below the best.

A very sharp, acidic red with a delicioius malt backbone. Smells like sour cherries, once again, but has a less musty and muddled aroma, much more tart, and the flavor is cleaner, not musty, but definitely bretty. Hints of oak, raisins, plums and sour fruit. Very dry, almost astringent.

Pours dark red almost brown. Very light on the sour but there is a tinge towards the back of the palate. Very fruity with some cherry and raspberry. Aroma is earthy funky yeast and some fruit. Decent body with some carbonation that plays on your tongue. Bit of a gritty texture and pretty enjoyable.

<b>In short: </b>One of the best interpretation of the classic Flemish Sour style. Second only to La Folie.
<b>How: </b>Bottle 750ml, sent to me by after4ever as a bonus. HUGE thank for that one. Consumed when almost one year of age.
<b>The look: </b>Cloudy resign brown topped by a medium off-white head
<b>In long: </b>Strong nose of oaky barrels. Body is a bit fluffy with a nice fresh cherry taste. Sensation of a freshly baked cherry muffin. The sour oak barrel couldn’t be better integrated. The finish is pleasantly dry. This is not a beer in the pure Flemish Sour tradition but rather a crossover of 2/3 of the traditional Flemish Sour (Rodenbach Grand Cru, etc.) and 1/3 the new trend of American Sour Ales. The beer is intense yet it is highly drinkable in large quantities, which is something I cannot say about most sour ales, even the best ones. That beer would be so highly rated if it had a Lost Abbey label on it. And even more highly rated if it was rare. A truly fantastic beer. I can’t tell you how much I like this beer… mainly because I have no clue how to pronounce its name.