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Dogfish Head / Rodenbach Crimson Cru

Dogfish Head Brewery (Boston Beer Co.)
Milton, Delaware
Beer style: Sour Flemish Ale - Flanders Red / Oud Bruin
Ref: ratebeer.com May2024

Common descriptors are
With more than 225 years of collective brewing experience, we’ve connected with our friends at Rodenbach yet again. A beer 2,800 nautical miles in the making, Crimson Cru is a liquid love letter we floated across the Atlantic Ocean … and back. Deep copper in color, Crimson Cru begins with Rodenbach’s world-renowned Grand Cru, a Flemish red-brown ale aged in oak casks, that made the overseas trek from Belgium to Delaware via tanker ship. After its cross-Atlantic journey, Rodenbach’s Grand Cru was artfully blended with an off-centered red ale we infused with sumac and sweet orange peel that was then dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc hops. The resulting beer is full-bodied and slightly warming with aromas of candied citrus, cherry, caramel and toffee, complemented by malty flavors of stewed fruits, plum, cherry, dried citrus and toffee. As part of our 2022 Off-Centered Art Series, Crimson Cru boasts a bold packaging design by Max Mahn. The artwork centers upon both breweries’ logos, pulling in colors iconic to each brand – forest green for Dogfish Head and crimson for Rodenbach. The label highlights a wooden foeder as a nod to Rodenbach’s well-known foeder-aging techniques and sumac leaves to not only showcase an ingredient within the beer, but subtly reference Dogfish Head’s focus on brewing with real, high-quality culinary ingredients.