What does a guy have to do get a beer around here? I mean, specifically, what is so hard about landing keg after keg of an excellent Flanders Red that you know you can safely and swiftly pour to rabid aficionados? Why so difficult to get a distributor to carry a beer so successful in markets all over the U.S. of A? Long story, my friends, long, frustrating, sad and ridiculous story. Maybe I will tell it one day, but, oy, I just don't feel the need to type the words this moment.
Still in the "prove it" mode, apparently, though the last, and first time, I had a keg of this, it was done in six days. Here are my notes from that tasting, back on October 20, 2010:
"Freshly tapped keg, poured into a Jacobins snifter, different logo than the one on the new tap handle. (Might need to hold onto this collector's item?)
Deep garnet hue, dusky crimson, with a slim, slightly pinkish head, like puree of raspberry.
Aromatics leap out of the glass and run around the room. Sweet and sour dance around each other in kind of tart tarantella, raspberry, sour cherry, and grape and assorted other dark stone fruit mix it with the intoxicating otherworldly Belgian yeast funk. Little sweet, little sour, little funk, little fruit.
Taste: Here it boards the palate with pistols blazing, barrels are spilled over in a terrific melee, invaders pounce on the taste buds with ferocity. Fruit and bold tart flavors make their mark and spread deliciousness and refreshment far and wide, up and down, in and out. Medium body, adequate malt, wondrous oak effect, fantastic belgian flavor.
I could empty the dictionary in further attempts to outline the exact over-pouring of tastes encounter and experience felt upon the senses, but let us make it simple, shall we?
Sharp. Tart. Zesty. Fresh. Inviting. Refreshing. Vibrant. Puckering. Uninhibited. Un-compromised. Full expression of the Flanders Red style. Impossible to find a flaw.
Fruit flavor lingers long on the palate, finish is near interminable. Won't quit, hangs hard in the mouth, but you don't want it to leave. The berries are never gone, tartness never flags. If you can't get it sour enough, here's your beer.
This is a satisfying Red indeed, one that begs more and more consumption, if your pocketbook is fat enough.
Could be wilder, wickeder, but then it wouldn't be this. And this is fine, fine stuff.
I'm on snifter #2 as we type. This stuff is truly irresistible."
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