Zoetzuur Flemish Reserve Ale

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

Another sour that has sat in my cellar for over a year. Redish/brown pour wih a thick white head and massively sour and fruity aromas. Easy drinking brew with ample carbonation and little hint of the ABV. Brett-dominated taste, not full on sour, but grassy/hay melded with a pleasant sweetness. This is very nice.

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

750 ml bottle. Pours hazy reddish amber with a smallish creamy white head that goes to a thin film and leaves some lacing.

The aroma is tart sour cherries and some funky yeast with a little wood.

The flavor is sweet sugary cherries with a little sour tartness. There are some acidic cardboard notes and a bit of an odd finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with smooth carbonation.

Overall, it's almost good. Too sweet with odd off-notes.

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

This is the sour that all sours should take their mark from. A cloudy golden-red pour with a light brown head. Tart cherries and vinegar dominate the aroma, yet the flavour is far more balanced. Sweet fruit hints balance out the tartness, before giving way to a bitter finish. Each mouthful deserves to be savoured!

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

My first sour - and flemish brew as well. I am so new to this style that a proper rating may not come out, but here goes --- Pours a deep amber and frothy head that, while thin, has some hang time. Lacing in the glass is medium and even. Aroma is sharp with sour fruit, cherry, and pepper. Flavor is sharp as well. Not overly complex, definately not cloying, yet layered, especially as it warms. Flavor is of bitter/sour cherry, cedar, and a sweet hit like salt water taffy. Black currant comes in the finish and is crisp as it is clean. Mouthfeel is abrupt, cool, and carries a nice bite. Makes me want to try more of the style. Now if I can just get a good bottle of Orval.......

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

A bright semi translucent ruby colored ale. A small frothy textured off white head rises above. Not much hang time. Though settles into a robust creamy lacing. Nicely balanced sweet and sour. Cherries are in there as well. Medium to heavy body. Real smooth. The sour notes are upfront in the tasting. But there is a fruity sweetness there and yeast notes balanced well into it all. This is only my second Flemish Sour. Not as bold as the Rodenbach, but good enough to remind me why I like this style.

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

had byself and at the end of a tasting, exceptional at both times ... cherry and cherry skins skiing soul goodness .. great lacing .. tart and sweet slightly dry and very refined.. very delicious.. in TX!!!!!!

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

more complex than Duchesse, but less flavorful. What was there was a nice redish-brown ale with a nice dry fruity aroma. more subdued and not AS sour, but quite good. more cherry in the nose and flavor even though it was not as sweet. medium body, and smooth.

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

Bottle courtesy of Bu11zeye: Poured a cloudy light brown/red color ale with a super huge foamy head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of oak with some tart note is pretty interesting with some great notes of Brett/funky yeast. Taste is dominated by great oak and tart notes with some sourness which is offset by the funky and barnyard like taste of the yeast. Lots of complexities can be found in this beer. Body was full with some limited filtration and some great carbonation. An interesting experience and something I would definitely like to try again.

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

Sugary aroma immediately upon opening. Smells like cotton candy mixed in with a pronounced, spicy yeast reminescent of clove. As the brew settles and warms the aroma turns more kriek-like - cherries and pits come to the fore. Foamy head is slightly tawny and sits atop a deep auburn colored brew. Very sour brew - you like lambics and gueuze you will like this. Some cherry pit bitterness hits towards the end to change up the in-your-face sourness. Good sour beer, but nothing special IMO.

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

This was a nice surprise at one of the Pizza Port festivals a while back -- 12 Hours Of Belgium fest in `05, was it? Either way, this rather unpronouncable beer (previously unknown) was a surprise hit, even with Flemish beer nit-pickers like my bud dukedebourgogne. So, when I saw that they ended up bottling this, and when I saw it for sale at Holiday Wine Cellar, I knew I'd bite the $8.99 bullet and grab a 750mL of this, for sure. Popped this open on a quiet Sunday evening, while watching an old Jimmy Stewart western with my wife.

Ruddy-red in the body, with enough head formation to matter, but not so much that it got in the way. Stuck around `til the end, too.

Seemed a touch funkier in the nose than what I remember from a year ago. This is perhaps due to the fact that this time I was using a glass with a tapered mouth, thus concrentrating the aromas into a rather small(er) opening. Either way, an appealing prelude to the principle performance.

Comes across a bit sharp and fruity on the first sip, with the sourness only making an appearence later on, in the middle and the backend. As odd as it sounds, this particular beer helped my sore throat (that I've been fighting since last week, after working in the Pentagon). But to merely classify this beer as a nice throat lozenger would do it a disservice.

Rather, this went down nice and easy, with even my wife (who normally prefers the fruity-tooty Lambics to the more esoteric Flemish sour-bombs) giving it a thumbs-up. Three chalices of this, and it was gone all-too soon.

Nice beer, though I do wish it followed De Proefbrouwerij's normal modus operandi, and was offered for a bit less than $8.99. But for an occasional change of pace, I'd have no qualms recommending this.

Music: Tool's "10,000 Days"
//TB