Zoetzuur Flemish Ale - De Proefbrouwerij (bvba Andelot)

goochpunch

Texas

2.79/5  rDev -29.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Pours out a hazy rusty red. Cherry smell is pretty big up front. Faint tart smell in the background, but cherry pushes it out. Taste is interesting. Not your typical Flemish red. Has a pretty big hit of brett along with the usual tartness. The cherry is a little much. Kind of sweet too. Fairly heavy body with some stinging carbonation (although low carbonation; weird). I think I'd like this a whole lot more if it weren't for the cherry.

Serving type: bottle

05-12-2013 01:48:21 | More by goochpunch

SeattleAdam

Washington

2.6/5  rDev -34.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

A- Finger of off white head. Red at bottom of glass and gets lighter towards the top. The rocky head dissipates just a bit and clears way for bubbles.

S- Grape soda, rasberry jam, sour, fruity lambic.

T- Hoppy burn but sour. Hits back of tounge and washes/settles to the front. Kind of a backwards effect! Very fizzy and grape. This beer will hit your nose as much as your mouth. Tastes like acidic, citrus fruit juices after brushing your teeth. Very interesting but not too pleasant.

M- I think this is a little too carbonated...to the point of fizzy. This settles in the weirdest, backwards way. Thin mouth feel.

D- I don't think I will be purchasing this again. It's drinkable in the sense that you can't taste any booze at all but it's not drinkable in the sense that it's fizzy and too acidic.

Serving type: bottle

04-30-2009 04:31:43 | More by SeattleAdam

harrymel

Washington

2.48/5  rDev -37.2%
look: 1.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

Unknown age on the bottle, but it was in the discount bin, which means it was at least one year on the shelves...

Poured to NB globe.

A: Pours a hazy mahogany ale with little to no head formation despite turbulent pour. Affluent peanut colored film is broken sans evident carbonation.

S: Raisins, prunes,,,,dark fruits dominate the nose. Quite difficult for me to discern. As advertised, sweet and sour. Very reserved as far as flemish ale's go.

T: More tart than I had anticipated. This is quite nice. However, the fruits continue to limit the appreciable flemish qualities one would anticipate. As the ale resonates, I start to sense the cherries typical of the style.

M: medium bodied, low carbonation.

D: Having a hard time enjoying this one. It's tolerable, but I wish the bottle wasn't 750ml's. ended up pouring half out.

Serving type: bottle

02-06-2011 07:13:39 | More by harrymel

Crosling

Colorado

2.45/5  rDev -38%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Dark copper, old currency color with a large white head aloft. Moderate Flemish Sour aroma, with mild apple aromatics and sugary fruit. Not really any oak or sour yeast chartacter, although it does smell slightly musty. Really mild overall, lacking character and depth and possessingly a mildly tart apple flavor. On the finish, however, is a very sugary, sweetened fruitiness, that begins after the swallow and is very sweet and cinnamon like. It’s very sweet overall, presumably sweetened. This is a very poor example of a Flemish Sour in my opinion. Almost laughably bad and the sweetness lingers.

Serving type: bottle

04-24-2006 15:54:23 | More by Crosling

dbalsock

Vermont

2.4/5  rDev -39.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Appearance: Poured a tan brown color with a good white head. Didn't look too active on the carbonation side of things, however.

Smell: Light chocolate taffy, vinegar, basement and the old rotting wood pile that was behing the house I grew up in. Interesting, but not good.

Taste: Raisins and vinegar come through heavily on this, which is more consistent with my experience of a flemish red ale, but again moldy basement was very present as well.

Mouthfeel: Sourish and puckering, but also a little too sharp in the back of the throat. Usually I like sour beers, but this had another sharp feeling too it that was too much for me.

Drinkability: I found this very hard to drink, but it wasn't a drain pour. Compared to any other flanders red, it's a little harder to suck down and doesn't quite match up. However, I would be willing to give this another go sometime in the future.

Serving type: bottle

04-01-2007 21:29:27 | More by dbalsock

jmhart

Georgia

1.9/5  rDev -51.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 1 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 1.5

Picked this up at Hop City based on the recommendation of many BAs.

750mL poured into a snifter shared with Mrandypandy.

A- Poured a deep mahogany, but showed some brilliant, red delicious hints when held up to the light. Not much carbonation, but that's standard.

S- Some definite acetic notes, apples, and grapes. Not the greatest sour smell, but it shows promise.

T- Apple juice. Tastes like all natural unfiltered apple juice. The kind you get at a farmer's market where they grind the apples right in front of you. Overly sweet with no sour notes at all. Really disappointing.

M- Medium bodied with not much carbonation. It's got a decent mouth feel...but so does unfiltered apple juice.

D- my tasting partner silently decided to abstain from the rest of this bottle, and I ended up pouring out my last glass. It was just not good.

Serving type: bottle

08-08-2010 17:11:40 | More by jmhart

bobhits

Kentucky

1.89/5  rDev -52.2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 1.75 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Avoiding the complex review. This is unique as hell to be a flanders red. I get dark cherries, apples, and cider backed by an over carbonated carbonation burst. It doesn't sounds good, but to be honest it's rather refreshing and fruit in a pretty good way. Just don't expect puckering sour or over the top vinegar notes like some of the better flanders do.

I feel less good at this beer review stuff seeing as how the bottle tells me it was made with cherries. Oh well. Spices are subtle but there.

This is an ok beer, and given the reasonable price I don't knock it, but it doesn't really meet the style expectations and it is ok not great. 13 bucks for this bottle, not awful given it is a sour.

My final score adjust slightly for the style where this is just below average and I had to score it as such. Still I enjoyed it but who doesn't enjoy a beer that isn't awful?
.
Edit

As I drink more the sweetness is over the top and the aroma just doesn't entice me. It has some good flavors and I recommend a SMALL tasting of this one.

Edit 2.

This is going down the drain. It has some nice flavors mixed in with just not good ones. It honestly is impossible to get past 10 oz of this which means a full 16 oz pour is going down the drain. I'd worry about an old bottle but this style shouldn't be hurt by some age. Sorry but apples and cherry a great ideas in a sour, but it has to be sour. This isn't sour. It isn't good.

Serving type: bottle

04-24-2013 00:11:06 | More by bobhits