Ichtegems Grand Cru

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Pours a beautiful, barely transparent dark chestnut with a fairly thick buff head. Aroma has a strong and fairly sweet cherry overtone plus apple and nutty hints. Sweet, malty flavor is almost more like a cider than a beer, just a tad sour, a strong cherry note with touches of pear and apple and a whisper of banana. Mouthfeel is lively and fairly firm. Worth seeking.

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

This poured a brown color with a beige head. The flavor contains tart cherries, vinegar, and some dark fruit. The flavor is very sour but balanced with some raisins and grapes along with cherries and a hint of citrus for the sour. The aftertaste is also tart with a malt finish. Overall this is a nice beer.

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

Labeled as "Strubbe's Flemish Red Ale" - deep mahogany red pour, tight head, some lacing. Apple cider vinegar sour aroma, sweet and tart, overripe apples and fruits, funky and yeasts, very earthy. Flavor is tart and sour upfront, light apple cider vinegar, then lightly sweet, heavenly linger, like a Sweet Tart on Halloween, candy good. Loved it.

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

It pours a dark root-beer brown with a very thick light-tan head and copious lacing. An aroma of caramel malts, hops, oranges and citrus, some bitterness, raisin, woodiness, coffee, and mild spiciness. The mouthfeel is smooth and fairly rich. Flavors of roasted malts, hops, orange and citrus, various fruits- sour apples, woods from aging, raisin, bitterness, coffee, and spiciness. Very good..

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

Another stellar sour, also tried this day at Sergio's World Beers in Louisville,KY. Pours a deep mahogany. Very spritzy, not quite as tart as the other flemish i had, but still sour and very ripe. black cherry, plum and wild raspberry fruit.

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

apparently from the same brewer as Ichtegems Grand Cru. Similar beer, with this one being a little more subtle in the cherry department but a tad more sour tartness to it. like the other one, good but unspectacular for the style. label: Strubbe's (large font) Grand Cru (medium) Flemish Red Ale (large)...red label. unknown abv. decent buy for $4 or so.

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

I picked this up at the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, Va. This beer is just so, so. It doesn't hold a candle to the Dutchess or Rodenbach Grand Cru. For the money, get one of those instead. This beer is sour but there is no funkiness - none of that horseblanket that is characteristic of this style of beer.

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

This beer pours a brownish color with a hint of red. It gives off a reddish tan head. It aroma is funky and sour. the flavor follows more of the same. This beer is acidic and sour, with a fruitiness. It has a very clean aftertaste unlike some of the funky brett type beers. I recommend for someone who is looking to try sours.

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

a nice but unspectacular flemish red. the aroma is a little oak and sour fruit, but simple. the flavor and feel get quite nice as the beer warms. full, smooth, oak and slightly sour cherries. not as complex as some, but still nice.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

I got this one from my friend Jack who owns Staples Corner Liquors in Gambrills, MD. He knows I'm a big Flemish Red Ale fan and thought I'd enjoy this product that they just started carrying.

I poured this beer into my glass and the first thing I noticed was the large carbonation bubbles that caused a super large head on a somewhat gentle pour. The head has a very nice light tan color to it and leaves some very light lacing on the side of the glass when you drink it. The beer has a dark brown color to it with hints of red around the edges when you hold it up to the light. Closely examining the beer, you can see little chunks of yeast floating around down to the bottom of the glass. The aroma is very promising with an acidy/tart fruit smell emitting from the glass.

The carbonation is really prevalent when you get around to drinking it. When drinking this you really get a full blown tingle on your tongue, almost like drinking a soda. This was a little too harsh for my taste buds for this style. The taste is pretty average for a Flemish red ale. You have your standard tart cherry taste and you do pick up a hint of the oak barrels that the beer was matured in, but it really fell short of my expectations. I think it could have been much smoother and I would have liked to have tasted more of the oak barrel aging.

Overall, I thank my friend for supplying me with this beer, but I really prefer the Duchess when it comes to the Flemish Ales. After the review: Tried this one at Max's 72-hours of Belgian Beers Fest. The review of this was mostly consistent with what I had said before. The flavor definitely comes out a little more on draught. So I'm bumping this from a 6 to a 7. Still this one is pretty average.