Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

It pours a dark, semi-transparent Coca-Cola brown with just a little bit of head. Aroma is strong and malty, and has an overtone of apple brandy, rather like a barleywine. Flavor is mainly of apple brandy and has subtle hints of sweetness and cinnamon. Texture is silky smooth and just a little tingly. It tastes more like a barleywine than an ale, except that it doesn’t have a fierce alcohol bite.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

This brew poured a dark reddish brown with a bit of orange edge with a creamy off-white head. The aroma is comlex with some tart woodiness. The flavor is a bit thin, alcohol, tart with a bit of sweet malt in the background. The mouthfeel was thin-medium. Overall--pretty tasty stuff.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru 4.3 cheapdark Thanks to Linus stick, I had this at the Bocktown, nice place! Very dark, with a barely red tinge shining thru when held up to the sunlight. Nifty creamy head with lots of small and sporadic big bubbles. Friendly tart aroma, with fruit olfactory. Tingly first impressions on the palate. Tart bite, delicious and fun. What an experience! Finish? What finish? Balderdash, it’s gone! Nicely done and very enjoyable. I love these sour ales, simply lovely. An overall extremely pleasant experience!

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Had this on draught and was a little excited. The beer poured a clear reddish gold colour with an off-white head. The aroma was very tart, very pungent, like an old swiss cheese. The flavour had some sour cherry and sour apple taste, and a decent malt backbone. I enjoyed it.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

On tap at the Burger Bar somewhere between The Luxor and Mandalay Bay. (had the Urthel Hop-it! as well)

Seeing tons of totally unknown taps was more than a surprise when we walked in. The beer menu was a leather bound Chimay bible. I ordered the Sliders Plate not knowing what I would get - 3 - 1.5" diameter burgers. WTF? Good eating tho! Leah is sitting across from me with a flute of Lindemans Framboise that was on tap and thouroughly enjoying it, my little girls chowing down on french fries, everyone is happy and having a great time! Leah's mom choked and almost died when she tried the Grand Cru as she breathed in the beer instead of swallowing it. Hilarity ensured. A server (not ours and not the chick with the massive tits that were falling out of her top) came by and was genuinely concerned about my beer choice warning me that it was waaay out there, not something anyone likes except for a few chosen weirdos and letting me know that most people refuse to drink past the first sip and get another beer. He seemed suspicious of the fact that I shooed him away since I was very excited that it was on tap and the fact that I actually ordered it on purpose with knowledge. Later on, I wore his skin as a cape and rolled his skull down the escalator. I digress...

The aroma was not all that complex and came across on the mild side with cherries, oak and malts. Something was up though as I noticed that I was having trouble getting a good whiff of this beer and the Lindemans, so take the aroma comments with a grain of salt. it has a nice mid dark brown colour with a small white cap that lives on around the rim only. WOW! Big huge sour bomb! Tart sour cherries, intense yeasty sourness, bland pepper, vanillaish oak, a bit of funk and some decent complimentary malts. Sour and tangy indeed. Excellent carbonation, very dry and tart finish that leaves a very healthy burning in my chest. A total treat indeed.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

The aroma is very nice and rather aromatic with some nice sour notes that perpetuate as well as some tartness that becomes evident even with some very slight oakiness that undercuts the other aromas. The appearance is a nice a dark reddish-brown to chestnut with a nice and creamy head that is ever expanding and remains indefinitely and is a light to dirty brown in color and leaves a thick, light-brown coating of lace on the glass and is very nice. The mouthfeel is nice but a bit thin but light-bodied with some very nice sour complexity and nice balance but no where near the quality of the Grand Cru with a palate that is even a tad watery but does stick to the palate nicely. The flavor is sherry to port wine-like but not as sour or nearly as tart as I expected and even a bit more simplistic with an aftertaste that is nice and sweet but not too terribly tart with a finish that is wet-like and sour. Overall, not exactly what I was expecting but I did have the Grand Cru before this one and I find myself comparing this brew to the Grand Cru which is not fair for the rating. On a final note, I think this brew would appeal to a wider audience of beer aficionados.