Quite funny. My first encounter with the Rodenbach was also my first experience with a flemish red. I can remember i wasn't quite known with the more sour belgian styles, and this style in particular was overcherried in my opinion. But as my tastebuds have evolved throughout my presence on ratebeer, i can appreciate more and more different styles. So also, the flemish sour ales. There you go: a 4.0! Original Rate:Although i admire the perhaps greatness of this beer, i just cant appreciate fruitbeers, and this one does remind me of a simple Kriek, with it's enormous cherry taste. It's very fruity and that's the thing which f*cks up the flavour! Beer is made of hops and granes and not of fruit!

Bottled:
.Pours deep, brownish red with a steady head. Sourish cherries on the nose. Acidic flavour of sourish cherries and oak casks.

Dark brownish red. Big fruity, balasamic aroma. Tart, with balanced acidity and cask character. Complex and simply wonderful.

I went quite a while without seeing this beer. Palm bought the brewery, tried to brew it away from the venerated Rodenbach site. This of course didn’t work and they went back. Finally, they felt comfortable exporting it again, and finally I was able to try it again. It used to be that I wanted to die choking to death on this glorious brew. Where does it stack up now?

Orangey-red colour. Fruity aroma shows cherry and black currant, but also a little bit of sugar. (Sugar was tradittionally added to cut the intense acidity but is not on the ingredient list on my bottle today). Very tart body. Vibrant, with cherry, red currants, plums, and underlying sweet malts. Well balanced. Clean acidity, unlike some other Flemish sours that have acetic influences. Big, tangy, rounded. Without the benefit of sampling fresh old Grand Cru and fresh new Grand Cru together, I find it sharper, but slightly less complex, than in the pre-Palm days. A slight downgrade from perfection, but still a classic.

My first serious rate: Vintage 2000. For the last batch of this, some bottles made it to Ontario. Word of its demise was already out by the time it hit the shelves, so I stocked up as much as my broke ass could. In September 2008 I sampled my last bottle with Beershine and Kimchee. It was quite sweet up front, but got drier as it progressed through a rich cherryish body towards a lingering tart finish that eventually grips the throat. It’s got a deep rodenbachy aroma with abundant cherry still, even after 8 years. The body is starting to show a bit of thinness - it’s an old age for such a light beer. But otherwise, this is still going strong, the sense of balance undisturbed and the quality still evident. RIP Alexander.