Crimson Cru
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware, United States 🇺🇸
Collab with: Brouwerij RodenbachFlemish Red / Bruin Rotating
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Score
6.68
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With more than 225 years of collective brewing experience, we’ve connected with our friends at Rodenbach yet again. A beer 2,800 nautical miles in the making, Crimson Cru is a liquid love letter we floated across the Atlantic Ocean … and back.
Deep copper in color, Crimson Cru begins with Rodenbach’s world-renowned Grand Cru, a Flemish red-brown ale aged in oak casks, that made the overseas trek from Belgium to Delaware via tanker ship. After its cross-Atlantic journey, Rodenbach’s Grand Cru was artfully blended with an off-centered red ale we infused with sumac and sweet orange peel that was then dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc hops. The resulting beer is full-bodied and slightly warming with aromas of candied citrus, cherry, caramel and toffee, complemented by malty flavors of stewed fruits, plum, cherry, dried citrus and toffee.
As part of our 2022 Off-Centered Art Series, Crimson Cru boasts a bold packaging design by Max Mahn. The artwork centers upon both breweries’ logos, pulling in colors iconic to each brand – forest green for Dogfish Head and crimson for Rodenbach. The label highlights a wooden foeder as a nod to Rodenbach’s well-known foeder-aging techniques and sumac leaves to not only showcase an ingredient within the beer, but subtly reference Dogfish Head’s focus on brewing with real, high-quality culinary ingredients.
As part of our 2023 Off-Centered Art Series, Crimson Cru boasts a bold packaging design by Natalya Balnova.
Deep copper in color, Crimson Cru begins with Rodenbach’s world-renowned Grand Cru, a Flemish red-brown ale aged in oak casks, that made the overseas trek from Belgium to Delaware via tanker ship. After its cross-Atlantic journey, Rodenbach’s Grand Cru was artfully blended with an off-centered red ale we infused with sumac and sweet orange peel that was then dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc hops. The resulting beer is full-bodied and slightly warming with aromas of candied citrus, cherry, caramel and toffee, complemented by malty flavors of stewed fruits, plum, cherry, dried citrus and toffee.
As part of our 2022 Off-Centered Art Series, Crimson Cru boasts a bold packaging design by Max Mahn. The artwork centers upon both breweries’ logos, pulling in colors iconic to each brand – forest green for Dogfish Head and crimson for Rodenbach. The label highlights a wooden foeder as a nod to Rodenbach’s well-known foeder-aging techniques and sumac leaves to not only showcase an ingredient within the beer, but subtly reference Dogfish Head’s focus on brewing with real, high-quality culinary ingredients.
As part of our 2023 Off-Centered Art Series, Crimson Cru boasts a bold packaging design by Natalya Balnova.
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7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Amber-red in color with a two-finger head. Aroma is berry, fruit and spices. Taste is also berry, fruit and spices.
Tried
on 21 Jan 2025
at 05:38
6.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Hazy, honey red pour with a sticky off-white head. Sticky malt, Christmas spiced, half twang nose Cherry juice, old brown ale, herby lemon flavor. Orange zest & caramel-y malt, lemon, heavy oak, with a teeny amount of twangy Rodenbach on the back end. Soft but consistent carbonation, woody bite, a touch starchy. Spiced sour. Ruined some Rodenbach.
Tried
on 06 Jul 2024
at 02:33
8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 8.5
Can from DHF for review. Pours a brown red beer like a standard Belgian Red. Thin layer of foam. Smell is not that tart, but has a distinct cherry edge. But there's nice tartness on the first sip. Malt sits up front for a little while, then lets a mix for fruit take over. I would not know sumac at first taste, but other sources point up some citrus, which I do find, and a trace of green leaves. Oak aging mellows out the tartness, then comes out on its own.
Tried
from Can
on 11 Jun 2024
at 04:48
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pours mostly clear red. Smells of toasted caramel malt and berries. The flavor is sweet and caramelly with some berries and a slight tartness. Pretty good.
Tried
on 23 Jan 2024
at 05:41
7.3/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 7.5
Flavor 7.5
Texture 7
Overall 7
Can from Livonia Liquor. Pours a clear rusty copper with a full fluffy off-white head that dissipates. Toasted caramel, bread, sumac on the nose. Once agitated loads of stone fruit notes come out: apricot, cherry and plum. More dark fruit on the palate with peppery, sumac and a bitter pithy note. Drying finish.
Tried
from Can
from
Livonia Liquor & Fine Wine
on 23 Dec 2023
at 00:17
2.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 1
Texture 4
Overall 0.5
Not too sure what beer others are tasting here but, this can is simply an insult to the name Rodenbach, it tastes nothing like the fine famous flemish beers of the big R. Maybe nobody here ever tasted the rodenbach? I love all rodie brews, but Rodie ought to sue them for having their logo on this bitter ass stupid straight up sucky brew. False advertising, a bait and switch if you ask me, maybe I'll do the suing, a class action suit. WTF. I'm totally insulted. Even if I did get this off the mixed six market district rack for 13$. What does that make it? $2? It aint worth it. The only thing this stuff has in common with Rodenbach, is the color. Go suck an egg, Boston Beer Co, a big fat moby. You BBC, suck as bad as the BBC broadcasting company, hehehh. Yea this stuff is an immature astringent bitter phenolic shitty bitter, a know nothing brewer brewing for the first time, could do a better job than this when making their first IPA. Here on RB, its styled as a Flemish; F that! Its a stupid ass shitty nasty attempt at an IPA. There, you have it.
Tried
from Can
on 06 Nov 2023
at 20:11
7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
12 ounce bottle from The Beer Trappe, 9/2/23. Dark brown-red, medium tan head, average retention. Aroma of cherry, caramel. Taste is vinegar, cherry, leather, plum, pepper. Mild tartness. Nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Sep 2023
at 23:33
7.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle: Poured a clear deep reddish color ale with a small foamy head with some retention and lacing,. Aroma of cherry and oak notes with some medicinal notes also perceptible. Taste is a mix of cherry, oak and some light sweet caramelized malt notes with some medical notes also perceptible. Body is about average with good carbonation. Different and interesting but not something I would seek on a regular basis.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Aug 2023
at 14:42
7/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
12oz bottle. Interesting flavor profile, but rather weak for the style. The base beer's sumac component is interesting to me. Kind of centered around the orange peel, the mix is mellow and sublime, sort of nullifying any sour tones the Grand Cru brought it, leaving some mellow cherry sumac over amber malt. I get very little hop tone. Drinkable, unique.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Jun 2023
at 02:07
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle. Pours hazy amber with an off-white head. Malt, cherry and oak notes, medicinal, not much tartness.
Tried
from Bottle
on 31 May 2023
at 04:08