Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V. - Caractère Rouge

Flanders Reds are a fantastic style. Because they're not too sour, too hoppy, or too high in alcohol, they're a fantastic starter beer for pretty much anyone. Hand a Cuvee de Jacobins to someone who says they've never had a beer the liked and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a positive reaction.

Rodenbach is a name that's pretty much synonymous with Flanders Red. It's all they do and they do them insanely well. They may not make a wide variety of beers, but the ones they do make are world class. So when a beer from them that I had never seen called Caractère Rouge hit stores a few months back, I knew it was going to be something special. Rodenbach decided to mix things up a bit with this one, adding sour cherries (typical for a Flanders Red), raspberries (not typical for a Flanders Red) and cranberries (What?!?!?) to a beer that has been aged in oak vats for 2 years. After a 6 month aging with the fruit, the beer was ready to go. At #145, Caractère Rouge.

Caractère Rouge pours a crimson-tinted apple cider color with a nice amount of haze to it. It's capped off by a tightly bubbled cream-colored head that held up nicely through the beer. From a distance, the first smell you get is a spicy oak barrel note. But the second you get closer, that fades and you're pulled in by huge amounts of ripe, jammy fruit. Overripe raspberry and tart cranberry notes lead, with just a kiss of vinegar and some syrup soaked black cherry notes. Vanilla, lemon meringue and a touch of spicy oak round things out. This beer smells fantastic.

It's not easy to do when a beer smells this good, but somehow Rodenbach got the taste of this one to match the smell. A sweet cranberry note opens things up with just a tug of tartness to it. This slowly fades into a sweet raspberry jam note. Ripe blueberry, cherry skin tannins and some silky malt notes appear before the finish. The beer closes out a touch dry with some oak and lingering dried cranberry and black cherry skin notes. There is a ton of sweetness in this beer, but the prickly carbonation and the slightly tannic finish keep things in check perfectly. This beer is a masterpiece and probably the best Flanders Red I've come across. Well done, Rodenbach.

 Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

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