330mL bottle, pours a deep dark amber-tinged brown with a small beige head. Aroma has gentle, tart cranberry and a touch of wild yeast. Flavour has some rustic peppery notes, tart cranberry, some gin, and some dry woodiness. Quite peppery, not particularly fruity. It’s decent, but I’m finding little to love.

375mL bottle from Sterk. Pours murky dark brown with white head. Gentle wild yeast and dark cherries on the nose; a touch of cinnamon. Flavour has peppery yeast, gin botanicals, dark cherry pits, some cinnamon from the cherry skins. Not terribly sour with a ton of dark cherry character. It's okay, I don't necessarily love how it comes together, but it's still pretty solid.

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is loads of tart cranberries upfront. More red berries, malt, hint of balsamic vinegar, touch of oak. Strong tart flavour, medium sour with a little sweetness. Lovely tart cranberry.

It has been a long time since I had a DVDK tick so I am looking forward to this: the cranberry 'fruit beer' version of Bien-Sûr, a sour ale aged in gin barrels. This derivative version was originally aged in gin barrels too (see the picture above for the original label explicitly mentioning it), but the present-day one just mentions barrel ageing in general, probably because the brewer did not want to be strictly attached to only gin barrels anymore and still wanted to continue this formula; I leave it to the admins to decide if this warrants a new entry or not (for me it does not, gin barrels are 'included' in barrels in general so the way it is currently brewed, is basically just an 'extension' of the original and does not contradict it). Thick and frothy, regular, pale greyish beige, fine-bubbled, slowly dissipating head over a dark chestnut brown robe with ruddy-burgundy glow. Aroma of indeed actual cranberries (as if gathered in the wild), wild blackberries, sour grapes, soggy dark brown bread, medium dry sherry, very old and oxidized red wine, Cumberland sauce for venison, fried oyster mushrooms, dry forest floor, vanillin from oak wood, passionfruit, still a background touch of gin or at least something 'botanical' as they say, beetroot. Unsurprisingly very fruity onset, clear cranberry flavour delivered generously, in a vinous, medium tart way - the tartness simultaneously stimulated by the beer's own blackberry-ish natural tartness and mitigated by a soft malty sweet element. Lively carbonation, fizzing on the tongue, also accentuates the sour side, which eventually gains the upper hand in a pleasantly refreshing, continuously red berry-like way, not really lemony, neither too wry or vinegary. Supple brown-bready maltiness under ongoing cranberry acidity, yoghurty lactic tartness and overall sour berry-like fruitiness - with those soft, sweet malts beautifully absorbing part of the sourness. Tannic wood effects in the finish, a tad astringent in combination with the sourness, but the noble oaky flavours match well with everything else - also with a toasty and eventually leafy-hoppy bitter note that graces the finishing stage. Herbal notes linger afterwards too, as in black tea, clove and Glühwein - subtle enough not to annoy me, but noticeable enough to bring up that gin association again, so I suspect my sample still at least partially made use of gin barrels. Needless to say, the sheer generosity of the cranberries ensures that this juicy, 'foresty' red berry flavour maintains dominance till the very last drop - aided by a yeasty earthiness reinforcing my associations with the woods and boglands in Upper Belgium where I found wild cranberries almost three decades ago. Plunging into nature in my earlier life and creating memories from it has helped me a lot in appreciating certain 'artisanal' beers later on, and this one is a nice example of that... Highly drinkable but complex enough to entertain from beginning to end, vinous, fruity in a 'dark' and autumny kind of way, rustic and balanced sour ale - a very nice offering from DVDK, once again.

Bottle at Maakun’s. Clear brown with greyish head. Sour berries, chocolatey malt, sweet and mild sour. A sour / stout blend with berries.

Bottle shared. Hazy reddish brown with beige head. Bready malts, cocoa, soft spoces, red wine, light sour berries, overripe blackberries, oaky. Medium sweet and sour, light bitter. Medium bodied, slightly dry. Nice.

Deep red colour with lasting head. Aroma and flavour have floral notes, perhaps from the gin base. Also a strong cranberry taste with the sharp and bitter elements coming through. Juicy and fruity but with a grown up feel.

Bottle sample during Gents Bierfestival '21 - shared with Tderoeck.
Couleur rosée-pâle, col léger crémeux blanc-cassé.
Arôme au bouquet plaisant avec de suite un côté de cranberries et ces effluves modérés de gin-genièvre avec un côté un peu 'jam' des cranberries. Petite note boisée et 'sour' qui arrivent en retrait.
Palais présente un léger funk, canneberge plutôt légères et qui accompagnent bien le caractère de base de cette bière usant de gin - genièvre en barrique, le tout garde une petite approche herbacée voire botanique qui se mélangent for bien aux effets de la barrique.

Rust-coloured head over foxy amber beer. Vinous, wine barrels, balm, milkchocolate and plums, even a whiff of slivovitsj. Slight acidbite, with dark fruit as plums and indeed cranberry. Again some chocolate impression. Acidthinning, bit fruitslick; sticky feel in the finish which is strange seen the gin. Another good DvdK.