6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Early rating from Beer Buddy app

5.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle, shared, dark red beer, small to medium head. Aroma is dark fruit, cherry, raspberry, cassis. Taste is sweet, raspberry, cassis. Ok lemonade.

6

Thanks Anthony D.

6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

New and limited Liefmans product (under Moortgat), a blend of Liefmans Cuvée Brut cherry beer aged on wine barrels for four years plus ‘a’ blonde beer (no idea which one) aged on bourbon barrels for two years. Since the end of July 2021, only available through the Colruyt supermarket chain and at the brewery’s premises in Oudenaarde; recommended as an accompaniment to fruity desserts, quote the head brewer. Let’s see what this gives – 75 cl bottle with the typical Liefmans paper wrap but, underneath it, also a front label with the same text and colours; bought at the Colruyt of Zele, in between Lokeren and Dendermonde. Moussy, small-bubbled, pinkish white, breaking head, retaining as an irregular ring around the edge and some thin veils in the middle; initially clear, deep ruby red colour with vermillion hue and visible sparkling, misty red with sediment. Aroma of candied cherry and the inside of Mon Chéri candy so without the chocolate (rather than actual fresh cherries – even a whiff of red Haribo candy), marzipan, cherry jam, baked banana, vanilla-scenting oak wood but relatively subtle for such extensive ageing processes, Kirsch more than bourbon, wet kitchen towel, white bread dough, redcurrant, light sulfuric accent somewhere. Sour and sweet but with much more outspoken, even sugary sweetness than expected when I bought it, feeling like candied cherries with a thin redcurrant- or sour cherry-like tart edge; this candied or cooked sweet and sugared red fruit effect spreads further on in the mouth, through a slender cereally malt core and towards a more vinous finish with retronasal vanilla from wood and bourbon as well as a vinous cherry wine-like effect, including something almond-y. Still that sugary sweetness lingers till the end, while bourbon remains a relatively silent factor, even though an alcohol heat is definitely noticeable upon swallowing. Feels Kirsch-like as well, in its combination of booze and cherry. Much sweeter than I was hoping – a bit artificially so even, clearly owner Moortgat was not willing to take the risk of offending the masses with a truly sour beer; I admit that this sweet red fruit beer, basically a ‘veredelde zoete kriek’, has a certain amount of finesse and complexity to it, but these finesses remain sadly subordinate to that annoying candied sweetness. I was expecting an upgrade of an authentic, unsugared 'oud bruin' with actual sour cherries and I got this. A bit of a disappointment in that sense, I’m afraid.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

ruby red color. Cherries, prunes, raisins, brown sugar, semi-sweet. Full bodied low carbonation. Lovely when warm. Rounded. So nice

7.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle 0.33l, vintage 2015. Lightly cloudy, reddish colored. AROMA- sour cherry, sweet, strawberry compot, plums, aged, touch of barrel character. FLAVOR- moderately sweet, just slightly sour, slightly bitter, cherry, strawberry and plum jam. Medium to fuller bodied. Sweet and tasty.