Brouwerij Bockor N.V. - Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge

If you've never tried a Flanders Red before, it's really a style you should try. Because it's a style that takes so long to make, it's not one that a lot of brewers are willing to try. Many breweries simply don't have the brewing capacity to let one beer sit in their tanks for over a year's time. But in Belgium, the country where the style originated, there are a few breweries who have been crafting insanely good Flanders Reds for years. Rodenbach is probably the most famous of the Flanders Reds coming out of Belgium today and is a really great representation of the style. But I think I've found another that you should get familiar with if you're a fan of the style.

Cuvee de Jacobins Rouge was first recommended to me by my friend, Kenny, who has been brewing his own Flanders Red for over a year now. While his own beer has been going, he's been trying a lot of other versions and even using the yeast from some of the better ones he's come across in his own brew. So when he told me that Cuvee de Jacobins Rouge was one of the better ones he had tried, I went looking for it right away.

Cuvee de Jacobins Rouge pours a deep reddish amber color with a thin light brown head. The smell was huge and absolutely incredible. I picked up a ton of dark cherries along with notes of raspberry, red currant, vanilla, oak and some Nilla wafer. As the beer warmed, I started to pick up more of the wood from the barrels it was aged in.

The taste is very similar to the smell and that's a very, very good thing. It opens with a big punch in the mouth of sourness with a lactic twang. Sour cherries upfront meet notes of currants and lemon with some notes of vanilla coming in on the finish. The carbonation is light and prickly and really enhances all of the flavors in the beer. If you're a fan of Flanders Reds, sours or just good beer in general, this is a beer you need to try.

Final Grade: A

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 39