Monday 18th November 2024, beer share at my place, just four of us and a load of old and new beers. We had two 25cl bottles of this thanks to minutemat and his cellar, both bottles were Best Before 3rd September 2015! These held up very well, red look, pink head, raspberry flavours and no cobwebs.

New addition to Bavik's Petrus brand, which started off in 1982 with Petrus Oud Bruin, the brewery's answer to the success of Rodenbach at the time; nowadays Petrus Oud Bruin is renamed Petrus Roodbruin apparently, at least according to this site, but the present-day version is made by blending one third of Petrus Aged Pale (sour ale) with two thirds of young 'brown' beer (dubbel), whereas this new BDX version is also described as a blend of sour ale with dubbel - I guess both are the same components as in Roodbruin, so I still do not know what the actual difference between the classic Roodbruin and this new BDX is - perhaps a different ratio of the two? Anyway: very thick and foamy, pale yellowish beige, dense and pillowy, membrane-lacing, firm and lasting head on a clear dark chestnut brown beer with indeed burgundy hue. Aroma of passionfruit jam, ripe blue plum, caramel candy or toffee, candi sugar and quite a lot of it, cola even, sugared fruit yoghurt, dusty hint, vague damp straw, raisins, candied cherries, chewing gum. Spritzy onset, lively carbonation piercing through sweet fruitiness with a cleanly edged profile (blue plum, passionfruit, banana, pear) and adding minerally 'stings', while the sourness, in a dull, soft, yoghurty way runs underneath, but is seemingly deliberately suppressed by an overdose of added dark sugariness, which annoyingly sticks to the teeth. A slick caramelly malt core with faint brown-bready edges remains a bit hidden under this added sweetness, which in the end becomes a bit Coca-Cola Zero-like; the sourness is in that sense more reminiscent of ascorbic acid (as in cola) than of actual lactic 'bacterial' sourness painstakingly achieved by prolonged barreling. Fruitiness lingers in a very clean way, dramatically lacking in the 'wild' esters a normal 'oud bruin' should have; some softly bittering hoppiness is noticeably underneath. Wood remains only conceptually present - this whole beer finishes off clean, sleek, ridiculously sugary, filtered and pasteurized. I can understand that if Bavik (or De Brabandere as they are officially called now) wants to survive as an independent brewery, they need to come up with products aimed at the masses, but this is just silly: the 'oud bruin' features are completely reduced to a basic, straightforward, almost childishly lemonade-like sourishness, while everything else is just cola-like sweetness, filtered and pasteurized to add insult to injury, and with a very meagre malt profile for some reason. Largely filled with added sugars, this is very far removed from a credible and traditional southern Flemish oud bruin (or red ale or whatever you want to call it) - even more so than I was fearing. If you want a simple and sugared oud bruin, seek Verhaeghe's Duchesse or even Bavaria-owned Rodenbach instead, because this I sadly cannot recommend. I hope young people getting acquainted with this do not get the impression that this is what oud bruin is supposed to taste like! Shame on you, De Brabandere.

Bottle from local AH XL supermarket. Nice bottle. Color: Lightly hazy golden, large white head. Aroma: Fruity, yeasty. Taste: Yeasty, malty and hoppy at the same time. Oak wood (tastes like oak chips are used, although on the label is stated that 'part of the beer is aged for 2 years on oak barrels'), some tannins. Dry-ish mouthfeel. Light tartness. Floral hop, light to moderate bitterness. Also light to moderate sweetness. subtle fruity notes of stonefruit and light hints of lemon. Sounds quite complex altogether, and indeed this beer has some complexity but at the same time also feels a bit 'cheaply produced' and unbalanced. Medium body, just over average carbonation. Overall ok.

#blond LCI

(bottle 0,33l from Lidl) Overall: Nice flavored beer. Aroma: Sweet, cherries, tannins, almond. Appearance: Dark brown-ruby. Medium, pinkish head. Taste: Medium sweet, cherries, light tart, some tannins. Palate: Medium body. Dry-sourish finish.

(bottle 0,33l from Lidl) Overall: Quite pleasant classic sour. Aroma: Sour, vinegar, light wood. Appearance: Light hazy golden. Medium, white head. Taste: Light sweet, medium sour, leather, citrus acidic, grapefruit. Palate: Medium body.