Rodenbach Grand Cru
Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V.

Rodenbach Grand CruRodenbach Grand Cru
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From:
Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V.
 
Belgium
Style:
Flanders Red Ale
Ranked #8
ABV:
6%
Score:
95
Ranked #1,369
Avg:
4.29 | pDev: 11.19%
Reviews:
1,232
Ratings:
4,298
Status:
Active
Rated:
Feb 08, 2024
Added:
Nov 25, 2000
Wants:
  353
Gots:
  761
Flanders Red Ale- a blend of 1/3 young beer and 2/3 aged beer matured for 2 years in oak foeders. The original sour ale.
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Ratings by Satyr179:
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Rated by Satyr179 from Sweden

4.5/5  rDev +4.9%

Mar 01, 2013
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.03 by PvtSnowball from Florida

Feb 08, 2024
 
Rated: 4.5 by AbeO

Jan 15, 2024
Photo of beerwithmeIRL
Reviewed by beerwithmeIRL from Ireland

4.68/5  rDev +9.1%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.75
330ml Bottle - Pours darkish brown with a ruby-red hue and 1 finger off-white head that entirely dissipates with great rapidity. On the nose, straight up vinegar sour with a hint of caramel & dried fruits. On tasting, that trademark acid-tang sensation hits the tongue and opens up the tartness of sour fruits like cherry, apple & zesty orange. Complexity is added with hints of toffee, vanilla & even an indistinct tobacco-esque flavour. Always an incredible experience drinking this beer & I find it quite refreshing too. Top class.
Dec 19, 2023
 
Rated: 4.16 by Nyoder

Dec 13, 2023
 
Rated: 4.4 by Rollmeaway2loadout from Illinois

Oct 29, 2023
Photo of thehyperduck
Reviewed by thehyperduck from Canada (ON)

4.16/5  rDev -3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
330 mL bottle from the LCBO; best before 11/7/2025 and served slightly chilled.

Many Rodenbach beers are visually similar, and Grand Cru is no exception: it's coloured deep, clear burgundy-brown with ruby-red highlights. Half a finger of bubbly, sudsy, light tan-coloured head disintegrates well within two minutes' time, leaving behind a soapy collar and little else of interest. The aroma is a classic blend of oak, red wine vinegar and sour cherry, with added hints of vanilla, balsamic and some musty funk.

It's a quality red ale - fruity at first, with sour cherry, apple and red grape leading into notes of caramel, oak, red wine vinegar and subtle vanilla. Mild to moderate leathery, musty funkiness on the back end, with hints of balsamic and oak dissipating into the aftertaste. Medium in body, with fairly lively carbonation that adds some spritz to this red ale's otherwise smooth mouthfeel. Good drinkability, relatively speaking - this bottle is close to the perfect serving size.

Final Grade: 4.16, an A-. Rodenbach Grand Cru is one of the only Flanders red ales that has been easily accessible year-round in my neck of the woods, at least for the last half-decade. I have enjoyed it on a sporadic basis ever since, but the truth is that while I really *love* this style once in a while - there's just nothing else like it - I don't have the desire to drink 'em on a daily or even weekly basis. Grand Cru does come off as a bit of a wallflower, sandwiched between their bolder "Vintage" series, and their more approachable fruited sour ales such as Alexander and Caractère Rouge. It's still an excellent beer, and well worth seeking out if you develop an interest in Flemish sours - it's not the gold standard of the style, but silver? I could see that - in fact, the label is already the correct colour!
Sep 20, 2023
 
Rated: 4.19 by MakerMachiav from England

Sep 16, 2023
 
Rated: 4.79 by QueenSac from Colorado

Aug 24, 2023
 
Rated: 4.35 by MICAMD from Maryland

Aug 20, 2023
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Reviewed by Mindcrime1000 from South Dakota

4.25/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Poured into a tulip.

Pours clear dark brown with garnet highlights. Excellent tan foamy head. Limited head. Excellent lacing.

Detectable to strong acidity on the nose with dark fruit and caramel sugar notes. Perhaps some orange peel.

The flavor is complex and refined. Acidic but not overpoweringly so. Excellent balance with sweeter flavors of apple, raisin, and a bit of oaking. The mature beer portion of this blend is what keeps the restraint just right.

Like the flavor, the feel is well balanced. Not drying but not sticky either. Vanishing carbonation. The first few sips have a fair amount; it subsides into tart smoothness quickly.

For my personal taste, this brew may be a shade sweet and tame for the style, but that's also the level of restraint the brewer was intentionally pursuing. Nailed it to say the least.
Aug 18, 2023
 
Rated: 4.19 by SushiSakeBeer from Oregon

Jul 16, 2023
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Reviewed by Effinwill from California

4.79/5  rDev +11.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 5
poured from the bottle into Belgian tulips. It's too cold for critical tasting but I didn't want wait. My wife loves sours so I've tried many over the years.
L: muddy river water, hazy brown, not the look I'd be shooting for, but we don't drink beer with our eyes
S: beautiful. you can smell the acid forthwith, accompanied by caramel or toffee, a box of raisins, maybe some orange peel
T: racy acidity. Sour orange, raisins and toffee. Long sour finish. Elegant stuff compared to the kettle sours you find sometimes at brewpubs. Not as serious and complex as our best wild ales. Somewhere in between.
F: appropriate weight. Any more malt and it would be a mess. Definitely not too thin.
O: a fun treat - glad someone came up with this style of beer back in the dark ages. They built some beautiful gothic cathedrals too, so maybe not too dark. The acidity of this one is high and more to my wife's tastes - I think I prefer the Duchesse one, but this is still super fantastic
Jul 09, 2023
 
Rated: 3.72 by merlot

Jul 08, 2023
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Reviewed by Ushouldbeworkinh from England

3.34/5  rDev -22.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
Nice deep amber brown colour. Smell is vinager, mostly balsamic. Hard to describe smell and flavour.
Very vinegar but in a good way, still a bit much for me. I may need to try more sours
Jul 05, 2023
 
Rated: 4.37 by Vyvyan from Illinois

May 16, 2023
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Reviewed by MikeWard from Pennsylvania

4.11/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
330ml bottle into a goblet. My best guess at age is bottled September 2020.

Head vanishes quickly, lightly sour aroma, but the taste is solidly sour with a sweetness in the background. Light body and a drying finish
Apr 30, 2023
 
Rated: 4.16 by LunchMoney from Minnesota

Mar 19, 2023
 
Rated: 4.71 by moonmopus from Illinois

Feb 24, 2023
Photo of TheHammer
Reviewed by TheHammer from Canada (ON)

2.42/5  rDev -43.6%
look: 2.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 1.75 | overall: 2.25
Appearance: Poured with a sliver of head that simply couldn't stick around and produced no lace. The body is a opaque cloudy brown, which barely reveals a hint of red when put up to the light, which I suppose is appropriate to style, but doesn't seem very appetizing to me for some reason.

Smell: Oh dear...it's like some kind on unholy mix of wine, apple cider and malt vinegar. I think I am also catching a bit of caramel malt in the background. I will given points certainly of potency, as zero warmup needed for that to be produced. I'll also give it points for complexity, but this is an assault on my olfactory senses. This is a sour at a level that I just can't see liking.

Taste: Where this beer starts, is where I'd have liked it to end. There is a potent lemon note seemingly barely curbed by some nice notes of cherry and apple, but then the beast is let loose as it passed outright into drinking vinegar with some brown sugar thrown into it, before this odd dry sand skunkness kind of creeps in over the ruins of that experience. There is identifiable complexity here, but the core sour component overshadows it. It's like an Indy band you like, touring with a band that plays with metal nails and a chalkboard.

Mouthfeel: The transitioning here starts high and jumps into orbit, and is then lost to the solar winds, leaving behind acid and sand for us to contemplate. That passes to go back to just a sour lemon note in the aftertaste, which would could be present, if you didn't experience what caused it. Carbonation is also pretty much absent here. There's very little here I enjoy.

Drinkability: Drinkable like a fancy lemonade, made with every bell and whistle, except you used half the water, and no sugar. Way too potent for my liking, and the acidic note I mentioned earlier seems to linger at the top of my stomach after it has gone down. At least the low carbonation doesn't further agitate things down there.

Final Thoughts: I don't think I've ever had a Flanders Red Ale I truly liked, but I also don't recall one ever being this potent. I know there are people who enjoy this, and that this is their jam. There are notes there that tell me, yes this beer is a remarkably complex offering. However for me, they are buried under the sour note of this offering. This is very much not for me, and didn't even make it pass the half way mark. If you relish in sours, this might be for you but this is a hard pass for me.
Feb 23, 2023
Rodenbach Grand Cru from Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V.
Beer rating: 95 out of 100 with 4298 ratings