(Bottle 25 cl) Almost black with a warm, reddish hue. Both figs and dates in both aroma and flavour. No bitterness but a pronounced underlying sourness with some sweetness on top. Lovely 250997 and 010998

0,25l bottle, bb 11.03.05
Interresting aroma to say the least: Fruit (orangepeel, strawberries), earth and wood, joghurt. Deep oaky brown, low visible carbonation, yellow low lacing head. Earthy flavors, strawberries, citrus and wood, lactic sourness. dry, light body. Wood and berry aftertaste.

Vintage 81 sampled 2008: A hazy red-brown beer with a thin beige head. The aroma has notes of metal, oxidation, fruit, and cherries. The flavor is sweet with notes of oxidation, metal, over ripe fruits. Too old, but still nice.

An unclear brown beer with a small head. Both the aroma is sweet and sour. Not the best of the type, but a still a nice beer.

2010-05-11, bb 2006-12, ~5 years old, 8-5-7-3-16=39
Beautiful dark brown color; medium-sized creamy head. Very nice aroma, vinous, a bit sour, light vinegar, fruits, chocolate, butter. The body is thinning, almost no residual sweetness, but the mouthfeel is quite smooth; caramel flavor, but also aggressive sourness, vinegar. The final has some chocolate too, but it’s quite short. Still good and interesting.

2004-05-28, bottled 2000-03, 4 years old, 6% ABV, 7-5-8-4-15=39
Beautiful amber color; creamy head. Nice aroma, malty, sour, woody and corky. Good body structure, quite aggressive; medium sourness, some malt but not sweet; IMO lacking some fruitness. Quite dry and astringent at the end.
Good but doesn’t reach the top.

(No this beer is not retired. It's the brewery, Clarysse that's folded. And no, the old label going till 1998 is still used, bottling date stenciled on the label, by the new brewery. But nobody seems to know who's responsible.) Hazy red-brown; brownish yellow head. Cookies, wood, lactic acid, estery nose. Woody taste, strange sweet flavour, peanuts, honey, lactic acid. Sourness strengthens gradually, but there's a sweetness supressing it, that is not 100% natural. Bit nutty palate. Slight acidburn, warming too. Body is very difficult to estimate, sour thins it, slick mouthfeel and woodiness beef it up. For the record, Clarysse had a draught version, a simpler old brown, in their pubs, that was always superior IMO to the bottled product.

Red brown color, slightly hazy. Aroma of cask wood, oak, tart cherry, bit cork. Taste is weak cherry, oak, old taste. Decent flemish sour ale, but more old and not as fruity as fresh ones.

Sweet and sour, with a hint of maple and molasses. ........................