The Belgian concept of 'rouge' (strong and artificially flavoured and sweetened cherry ale) as interpreted by Vander Ghinste, describing it as an 'aromatized beer' with 14% cherries; how this is made is exactly is anyone's guess but the brewery's, but I suspect it consists largely of a top-fermented beer 'à la' Le Fort Triple (in raw, unfinished form) spiked with a splash of the sour 'foederbier' this brewery has been making for decades and then heavily sugared and flavoured with cherry extract - but do correct me if I am wrong. Bottle from the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren. Medium sized, pale greyish white, shred-lacing, tiny-bubbled and creamy but breaking head leaving a thin greyish veil in the middle of a clear (filtered), very deep and 'dark' ruby red beer with burgundy edges. Aroma of 'poepegatjes' and other red candy as feared (and very strongly and vividly so), red bubblegum (also very strongly), candyfloss, cherry candy and some industrial cherry jam, reduced sugared cherry juice (the 14% I suppose), hints of brown bread dough, vanilla, old dry cookies, apple juice, banana and clove. Very sweet onset, dense and syrupy reduced cherry juice effect, cherry jam, but strangely (somewhat) less red candy and 'poepkes' than I was fearing; still heavily sugary though, sticking to the teeth. Nevertheless, this onslaught of sugared cherry syrup leaves just a small window for banana- and apple-like esters to peep through, continuing over a rounded, bready malt sweet middle, still deeply soaked in that artificial cherry jam and cherry candy flavour, making up the lion's share of this beer's flavour 'parcours'. There is a very thin 'veil' of Bockor 'foederbier' tartness to be detected, but it is so subtle that I almost feel sorry for it - this beer could easily have been made without it. Ends heavily sweet and cherry-candy-flavoured, with a slight bitterness probably ascribable to the 'foederbier' element - trying in vain to balance out the sweetness a bit. The alcohol, though considerable, remains fairly well hidden; thick sweet cherry syrup seems to absorb most of it. I cannot understand this whole 'rouge' thing, it has been plagueing this country for many years already, but who drinks this kind of rubbish? The ironic part in this specific case is that Vander Ghinste actually does make a fine 'foederbier' (they call it lambic) and have created several interesting variations on it, so with less of that awful industrial-feeling cherry syrup and more of this so-called lambic, this could, and I choose my words carefully, maybe, potentially, have been a great beer for actual beer lovers. Now it is another intentional sugar-syrup red monster for those who do not give a shit about what good beer actually tastes like. Pardon my French.