Rodenbach Alexander

Rodenbach Alexander. Federbier with sour cherries. Brouwerij Rodenbach, Roeselare, Belgium.

Clear, crimson coloring, slim white head atop.

Aroma: ah, cherries! Ah, funk, ah, weird, ah, sour......You can smell the barrels, you can feel the cobwebs, you can drink in the age, the complexity, the depth. Oh, Ah. ooooh.

In the mouth: Sweetness first, then the sour takes over. Cherries jubilant. Big tart, and huge refreshment. Wow. Palate gripping, mouth-pursing, tongue twisting, and ultimately delicious.
Yum. Flat-out yum.

This is the first time I've had this beer in probably 15 years or more. (Edit: Wrong! See below.)My memory is not good enough to recall how closely this matches the earlier versions. But, damn, if this isn't just what it's supposed to be. So good. So sour, so cherry, so tasty, and so very deep and so very good.

Why aren't you drinking one now?

P.S. Surprise! Guess what? I reviewed this one 13 1/2 years ago, way back in my infancy. I hadn't had a lot of experience with Flanders Reds, or as the kids call them these days, "sours." Here's what I wrote about it when I was but a babe....

Bubbly head, and deep, dark cherry red color.
Aroma is loud and sweet, projecting a fierce cherry flavor far and wide.
Sour cherries! Tantalizing, lively. Not a kriek lambic, but merely a "sour ale" flavored with "cherry essence."
And that's just the thing. It's simple and consistent. You get sour, you get cherry. I like it, and I can imagine it as an excellent dessert treat, but it's not the sort of thing you can imagine drinking very often.