Fellowship Ale 2019 n° 4: Llothlorien
Brouwerij Alvinne in Moen, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Sour Ale - Fruited Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.57
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Galadriel's magic, later revealed as the power of her ring Nenya enriched the land and made it a magic forest into which evil could not enter without difficulty. The only way that Llothlórien could have been conquered by the armies of Mordor is if Sauron had come there himself.
Fellowship beer n°4 Llothlorien was brewed with and by two Catalan Elves. The result, Cuvée Anna, was aged on 400 l red wine barrel. We've added handpicked plums, sloeberries, blackberries and some blueberries (not handpicked). Dark fruits of the forest macerated on a Flemish red ale, I promise you, you will find yourself in Llothlorien.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
11 September 2021. At Summer Belgian Beer Geek Gathering. Many thanks, Klaas & Liesbeth, cheers to the whole crew!
Hazy amber-brown, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of candied plum, red grape, cassis, blueberry, berry jam on toast, vague peach. Taste has sweet-sour plum, unripe red apple & berries galore in a toasty, nutty and somewhat caramelly malt body. Tart, dark-fruity finish, woody & funky with tannic berries. Medium body, slick texture, soft carbonation. Almost a Fruit Beer in the most literal sense of the word. Very good!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Pours dark, redamber. Scent is typically Alvine. Woody, medium fruityness. Taste is full, oaky, milder fruit. Nice base, not as fruity as expected - yet lovely.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle @ Belgian Summer Gathering Sept' 21, Evergem. Merci Siegfried.
Couleur pourpre, col fin blanc-cassé.
Arôme offre un bouquet plaisant fruité avec une bonne dose de funk de cette levure Morpheus. Fruité de baies sauvages, retrouve pas mal la mûre, la prunelle est plus difficile à trouver.
Palais est de suite marqué par un léger funk qui accentue bien le côté frais fruité des baies - mûres bien la, myrtille apporte une petite note de fraicheur plus légère. La prunelle perce en retrait avec un côté un peu plus acidulé. Barrique modérée - le tout est bien maîtrisé avec un bon travail de la levure maison.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
11/IX/21 - 75cl bottle @ BBGG Summer Edition (Klaas & Liesbeth's place), BB: n/a (2021-1018) Thanks to Bierridder_S for sharing the bottle!
Little cloudy red to bordeaux ruby beer, creamy dense off-white head, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of dried fruits, alcohol, bit oxidized, raisins, some banana, yeast notes. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: nice acidity, bit oxidized, rather dry, some tannins, pretty fruity, nice! Aftertaste: sourish, lots of green apples, green apple skin, bitter notes, fruity, some cookies, nice one, like it!
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Slight hazy amber brown with a small tan head. Aroma of oak, tart plums, dark berries, vinous notes, blackberries. Flavour is moderate sweet and sour. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Unclear copper with offwhite head. Sour rye, lots of berry, lovely fruity notes. Quite sour but not battery acid sour. Notes of rye like breadiness, lots of old oak. Medium body and soft carbonation.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle shared. Slight hazy reddish brown with small beige head. Blackberries, soft roasted malts, blueberries, gooseberries, light lactic, plums, bready,a bit of oak. Quite sour, soft sweet and bitter. Medium bodied. Nice!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
One of last year’s Fellowship ales by the unsurpassed sour ale specialist Alvinne, named after an Elves forest (if I am informed correctly) from Tolkien’s fantasy world. Thanks again to Glenn for dropping off the whole Fellowship set at my door. This one is a sour fruit beer, an ‘oud bruin’ if you will, made with, wait for it, plums, sloeberries (a kind of wild plum that actually grows in the region where Alvinne is situated), blackberries and blueberries – a feast of dark fruits. Off-white, mousy, dense head, slowly breaking and lacing in shreds over a misty bronze-amber beer with deep vermillion glow. Aroma of fresh blueberries upfront as well as (in decreasing order of dominance) the wild sloe plums, ripe blackberries of even blackberry coulis and stewed ‘cultivated’ plums, deeply penetrating the beer with additional impressions of medlar, dry autumn leaves, hard caramel without the sweetness, dry rosé wine, sherry vinegar, damp wood, violets, peach. Unsurprisingly very fruity onset with a lot of astringent berry acidity, very puckering – I guess the joint efforts of (especially blackberry and sloe) sourness on the one hand and lactic acid effects from the Morpheus yeast strain on the other hand; medium carb, smooth caramelly malt core dried very strongly by all this tartness, but complex, tannic and juicy till the finish, where the seeds, kernels and skins of all that fruit add further dryness and astringency. Yeasty and malty bread effects do, however, provide a soft ‘bed’ providing balance. Soft base dried severely by fruit and lactic sourness – not one for those who have difficulties with sour beer styles, that much is clear, but this one is again a very complex, rich beer, like I tend to expect from Alvinne. Doubtlessly a great beer for cellaring as well – too bad I only had one bottle.