7

19-01-22

7.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

2 February 2020. At Brugs Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke & Pieter! Presented as 'Rosie', after the AC/DC song. Clear amber-red, lasting, thin, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of prune, strawberry, raspberry mush, vanilla, red wine, raisins, toffee, red apple. Taste has sweet raisin, red apple & raspberry, sour redcurrant underneath with a funky, lactic effect; bit woody bitter with constant bready maltiness. Dryish, herbal hoppy finish, lingering red fruits galore, bread, woody tannins & heating red wine (almost port) alcohol. Medium body, oily texture, fizzy carbonation. More straightforward, but to me more enjoyable than the Lambic version.

7.2

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

One of the experimental beers dubbed Brewer's Desire, all produced by John Martin subsidiaries but all very different; in this particular case, the subtitle reads Bruinen Os Wine Barrel Aged and indeed this beer is constructed from Bourgogne des Flandres' Bruinen Os (a strong Belgian brown ale) aged in wine barrels with added raspberries and blackberries sparking additional fermentations. Sounds very complex for a Bourgogne des Flandres (and therefore John Martin) product but doubtlessly the company got wind of the global craft beer movement sweeping across Europe in the past years and I have heard before that some of the limited experimental beers at Bourgogne des Flandres are quite daring and exciting, so I figured I give this a chance. Comes from a green 37.5 cl 'geuze' bottle with cork, muselet and (barrel-shaped) hangtag; my sample is apparently bottle number 943 of only 1500 made, as these experiments are apparently all single batch beers (and most of them never make it outside the brewery so this is one of the exceptions that got bottled). The beer itself was apparently already brewed three and a half years ago. Creamy and quite dense, slanting, ecru-tinged off-white, open head with initially good 'edge retention', cloudy ruddy-burgundy robe with rusty red hue; in the end, the head has disappeared completely and with the sediment added, the beer looks all murky, not the most attractive sight, but anyway. Quite strong aroma, propelled forward by the alcohol; old 'Bual' madeira, strawberry wine, cooked apples, sweet white wine, tawny port, vanilla-like wet oak, almond, rosewater, honey, damp earth, soggy croissants, raisins soaked in rum, ripe blackberries indeed, red gooseberries, ripe blue plum, stewed and sugared rhubarb, candi sugar, cognac, touch of gingerbread and - becoming more prominent as the beer warms up - some solventy effects of varnish or even vague nail polish remover. Sweet onset with a strongly developed tart edge from both the wine and the fruit; general impressions of blackberries, medlar, blue plums and red apple but (strangely since they're in here) low on the raspberries, in a quite fizzy environment (for a beer this strong at least). Some residual sugars (candi sugar) stick to the teeth a bit, but the berries' acidity hold them in place; a 'hot' alcohol effect is noticeable on the tongue's surface from the start. Soft bready maltiness at the core, gliding over the tongue with impressions of sweet brioche bread crumbs, a dash of caramel and a hint of old cookies soaked in wine - with that wine factor becoming ever stronger towards the finish, providing increasing tartness but also increasing complexity. Breadiness of the yeast hangs suspended in an indeed very vinous tart red wine-like solution, working well with the caramelliness of the beer; the wooden barrel element adds drying, eventually quite pronounced tannins with a faded vanilla-ish scent typifying oak, while at this stage, the considerable age of the beer begins to show as well, in the form of oxidation - yet in a most elegant, old madeira-like way (strongly so, even). Meanwhile that lively carbonation is still fizzing away on the back of the tongue, a bit too enthusiastically so (probably due to the berries) and taking the attention away from what is actually happening flavour-wise. Ends tart and sugary-sweet at the same time, a quadrupel mixed with old red wine as it were, with the fruits still pushing through and the wood adding dryness, but the alcohol, in a brandy-like way, eventually starts to dominate - but not before the very end, which I think is an achievement of its own in a near-13% ABV beer. Still, this very clear and heating booziness could have been a tad less for me personally, I think this beer would have worked better at maximum 9-10% AVB, but the fact remains that this is a surprisingly rich, 'deep' hybrid of quadrupel and sour ale. The raspberries have faded very much, the blackberries less so, but neither of them overpowers the play of the old and maderized quad against the red wine barrels - again an achievement of its own in my book. Bit too hot-boozy, bit too fizzy, bit too solventy on the nose and just a little bit too 'dirty' in the end, but it must be said that after the first Brewer's Desire (a sour ale made at Timmermans) I had, this one too manages to pleasantly surprise me. I sincerely hate to admit it, but under the right circumstances and in the right brewing plant, old John Martin is apparently capable of producing interesting 'bières de dégustation' - too bad they found out about this capacity only now, and too bad this kind of beers are completely niche (certainly for them) and produced in ridiculously small volumes only. This kind of beer, though far from perfect, is daring, creative and 'deep' enough to possibly make me change my mind about this company - but they would have to get rid of all those awful Gordons as well then, and since that is obviously not going to happen, thankfully that is something I do not have to worry about.

4

Red Wine barrel? Barrel aging going nowhere. What's up with the high abv? Barrel aging is not just putting some beer in a barrel.