7.4/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Another Fils à Papa, the second one from last year, with cherries; bottle from the Prik & Tik in Zele. Membranous-lacing, thick, moussy, frothy head, pale greyish white, very stable (only very slowly thinning and eventually opening in small gaps); initially cristal clear, copper-tinged vermillion red colour with strings of small bubbles here and there, turning totally cloudy and deeper burgundy (brownish red) with sediment. Aroma of lots of cherries, sour cherries but sweet and even a strange whiff of candied cherries (strangely a bit red candy-like) as well, a hibiscus flower taken from a glass of rosé wine, ketjap, butter cake, wet old oak furniture, stewed rhubarb, bee balm, candy apple, blackberry jam, passionfruit yoghurt, melting caramel or toffee, soggy brown bread, hints of wheat flour, rosehip tea, wet clay, sugar-glazed red beets, cream, elderberry syrup and, for a brief moment, a volatile, subtle and luckily fading whiff of rotting cabbage leaves or even cow manure appearing when the sediment is added. Crisp, very fruity onset, sour cherry briskness but not completely drenched in sour cherry flavour: it is sour, sure, but mellowly so - yet still a soft lactic acidity dries the whole palate, even if remaining balanced by sweetness of added sugars on the one hand (contributing to an underlying candied cherry-like sweetish note) and lightly caramelly, bready, soft maltiness on the other hand. Red apple- and ripe brambleberry-like sweet fruity notes too; carbonation is softish, mouthfeel full but slick and soapy due to the wheat. White bread-like wheatiness is quite pronounced next to the aforementioned caramelly maltiness. The initial sourness nicely dries the palate at the back, seemingly stronger than in the onset; underneath the lingering fruity aspects and that residual sugariness which almost sticks a bit to the teeth, an earthy yeastiness builds especially after adding the sediment, establishing pleasant breadiness. Retronasally a dash of the manure-like touch reappears - again to vanish again very quickly. Herbal, tea-like aspects adorn the finish too, apparently herbs (not just hops) have effectively been added but in a way so subtle that it is near to impossible to identify which ones; my guess would be hibiscus, but whatever it is, it only acts to faintly accentuate the herbal, soft character of the hops, which provide only very late, very vague and very superficial background bitterishness. The wood tannins are more outspoken, with a vague, almost 'hidden' vanilla-ish oak effect peeping through. Ends sweet-and-sour, almost ketjap-ish, dried by the sourness and the woodiness but still juicy and round. Another well-made Fils à Papa from this low profile craft brewer in Ruddervoorde, very obviously building on the tradition of cherry beers based on 'Vlaams rood' and made with sour cherries, retaining that same subtle candied 'red' sweetish touch, though sourness dominates, as is the case in the two ultimate traditional embodiments of this concept, Rodenbach Alexander and Verhaeghe Echt Kriekenbier (I should revisit the latter, though - it's been ages). Pleasant and relatively accessible due to that sugary sweet aspect which has a softening effect, but a bit too accessible perhaps for seasoned beer geeks with a 21st-century palate? I prefer to see this in the tradition of Echt Kriekenbier and Alexander, and in that sense this is very comparable and of an equal level of complexity.
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Mar 2018
at 21:24