12th April 2009
Bottle from La Cave A Bulles. Cloudy amber beer, suddy white head. Sharply sour beer. Crisp semi dry palate. Somewhat different in it’s sourness. This is apple sour with just a little lemon - not at all lambic like. Refreshing.

A mahoganny brown ale with a thin off white head. In aroma, a classic sour ale with loads of epsom salts, ground cherry, lactic points, quite nice. In mouth, a sourish pulp skin with light lactic points, sustained citric acid, a bit of butter, lighter bodied, not bad. 330 ml bottle from Cave à Bulles, May 2010. BB October 2010.

For my 800th rating, I shall rate one of Des Vignes’ various blonde beers; in fact I am, at this point, unsure as to the difference, but my only hope is that there -is- a difference! So, for this one, it explodes in a spectacular manner all over my floor - very aggressive, milliliters gone to inebriating the dust mites, but luckily there’s most of it left there for me. It’s a very foggy beige with plenty of floaters and a huge but not particularily solid head. The aroma is citrus, coriander, yeast, almost like a lambic. The taste is very gueuze-like with sour grain notes and citrus, bitterness but wateriness. In fact if this had been brewed near Brussels I think it would just be called a Gueuze. As for how it tastes, as a gueuze, it’s all right, a bit smooth, lacking complexity, but okay.

Nice pour, brown to jet-black body with a fair amount of head. The aroma is an odd mix of sour ale, mahogany, oak, and chocolate. The taste is exactly like sour ale mix with cocoa. It doesn’t -not- work, but it doesn’t quite totally work, either. The two aren’t working in perfect harmony.

Bottle 330ml.Clear medium amber color with a average to large, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, berry acidic, brett, red wine, wood - leather. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet, moderate acidic and acetic vinergar with a long duration, dry dry, and a pepperry notes. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20100111]

Bottle 750ml.Clear medium amber color with a small average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white grey head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, barnyard, sour, wood, sour berry, red wine notes. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and acidic with a average to long duration, medicine notes, and a dry dry finish. Body is light medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft. [20100110]

Bottle 330ml.Clear light to medium yellow orange color with a small to average, frothy to fizzy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, toasted, bretty, citrus - lemon acidic. Flavor is moderate sweet and light to moderate acidic with a average duration, dry. Body is light to medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft. [20100110]

Tasting at Papsø’s
Hazy amber color. The aroma is a bit smelly: sour Brett and cheese. Sourish flavor, breadish too. Strange. Not bad, but still unrefined: it can be better.

Medium offwhite head. Hazy brown body. Spicy caramelly vinegary aroma with barnyard notes. Smooth sharpish (no, really!) mouthfeel. Dry-acidic wooden vinuous wild berry aftertaste. Very nice. (0.75l bottle shared by KnutAlbert.)