Dark Horse Reserva
De Struise Brouwers

750ml bottle into a tulip. 2018 release, 5 years old, good for another according to the label.

Deep dark red body. Small head does not last. Surprisingly neutral aroma. However, a lot going on in the taste. Sour, woody, dark fruit, red wine, mildest of funk notes. Finish a drying red wine. Very decent sour beer.

 

A 750ml bottle, bottled on 6th February 2018, and a best before date of 5th February 2028. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.

Appearance: Dark brown in colour with maybe some slight amber notes, and a one finger beige head that had decent retention, while leaving some lacing.

Aroma: Lightly tart, dark fruit, prunes, plum, cherry, oak, balsamic vinegar, with some light red wine vinous notes, caramel, leather and funk.

Taste: Sour, tart, dark fruit, plum, cherry, prunes, red wine vinous, oak, lime, vinegar, with a hint of caramel and funk.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Overall: It’s got some nice complexity and despite my preference for more carbonation, this was still very enjoyable.

Bottle pour into a tulip glass.
L: brown, dark burgundy, minimal to no head, immediate collar of lacy tan bubbles around edge of glass.
S: wine, oak, molasses, brown sugar
T: oak, sour cherry, dry wine
F: effervescent at the start, softens as it warms
O: beautiful Oud Bruin, so much barrel and layers of complexity, playfully changes as it warms, best at room temperature

 

 

Shared bottle at Bryne tasting. Deep reddish brown colour. Sour(ish) and oaky aroma and flavour, notes of red wine vinegar. Okay, but not the best Flanders Red I've had.

 

Dark brown mostly opaque pour with a giant billowing khaki head, leaving bands of lacing here and there. Smell is standard for style with apple, sour yeast, balsamic vinegar, plus dark cherry and deep yet well balanced red wine.
Taste is a really nice in how fruity it is with apple, red currant, vinous red grape, cherry, plum and a hint of pear all there, funk and dark rustic oak accent the vinegar and yeast notes. Sourness is well balanced, oak and funk undergird the slight acidity well. I'm really impressed with this one, a great oud bruin with a vinous twist!

This one pours a golden dark brown color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like herbal funk, port, black cherry, leather, bittersweet molasses, breadiness, and oak.

As with the vast majority of Struise beers, this is wonderfui. My problem with a lot of beers in this style is that often you don't get that malty richness from the base beer - it's often just sour and vinegary, and it covers up that malty goodness that I love. That's not the case here - there's leather, molasses, and dark breadiness, along with a light acidity, an herbal bitterness on the back end, some toasted oak characteristics, and a bit of worn leather.

This is medium bodied, pretty creamy and full bodied for the style, with an excellent soft drinkability, with a very manageable sourness.

This was four years in the barrel, and the four years old in the bottle already when I had it, and it's still really excellent. That's a testament to how great Struise is.

Belgian brewers and French wine makers have always had a most flirtatious relationship with one another. Their neighborly status means that brewers will dip their toe into the wine wold and Struise sees no different path. Spontaneously fermenting an ale and aging them in a blend of wine barrels ensures that their dark horse of a beer has some strong wine-like tendencies.

The ale that emerges from those barrels is a rusty redish brown and muddled foggy appearance. Its zesty cap reveals a host of wild aromatics- cherry, grape, plum and currant with a balsamic twist. To taste, a steely caramel maltiness is laced with sorghum and hard candy with backbone of fortified sweet wine.

As the malt sweetness is dissected by the beer's bracing sourness, the sour taste of robust red wine, cider, balsamic vinegar, lemon and lime to offer a refreshing taste to the stone fruit, pitted fruit and dried fruits of raisin and prune which extend into a deeply earthen character of leather, tobacco and weathered cellar woods.

Sour and trending both peppery and dry, the medium bodied sour ale is as savory as it is sour, retaining remnants of candy and malt and drying to complete refreshment and crispness for an off-clean finish and an afterglow of burlap, basement and nail polish spice that accessorize the short and sour linger.

 

 

 

 

Damn, this is really good. At a little over two years, bottling of 2/6/2018, this has the appearance of coke/Pepsi with a deep amber hue in the light. Streaming bubbles take over where a slight head fizzles out. Earth, dirt, yeast funk and prune scents. Plum, raisin, coke bottle candy, with a residual taste of dirt that strikes a balance with the dark fruit overtone. Some bitterness, tart and slightly sour, just dry enough, medium-thin bodis. Really impressed with this. Glad I have another to try in a few more years.