Oud Bruin
Brouwerij Bockor N.V. / Brouwerij Omer Vander Ghinste

RedbirdRona from Illinois

3.94/5  rDev -3.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Look: dark brown with no lacing

Smell: malt and cherries

Taste: a blend of sweet and tart cherries

Feel: crisp like a fresh apple. Every sip is refreshing.

Overall: a very enjoyable flanders that has a genuine cherry taste. I would definitely try this again if it was offered to me.

Apr 11, 2020

ScaryEd from New Hampshire

4.02/5  rDev -1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 11.2 oz bottle into a chalice glass.

Pours a deep reddish brown color with a finger of creamy tan head. The head leaves a ton of lacing before settling into a thick blanket.

The aroma brings notes of cherries and apple cider vinegar, with softer notes of caramel, fig, and plum not far behind.

The flavor starts off with sweet cherries and grapes, and is followed by some tart Granny Smith apples and a lingering vinegar acidity. There's some caramel and vanilla as well as figs and brown bread on the back.

The feel is medium bodied with modest carbonation. Very smooth and dry on the finish. The tart flavors linger before bready aftertaste.

Overall, this is a great Flanders ale that is wonderfully balanced by sweet and tart flavors, as well as an ever-present caramel malt backbone.

Dec 01, 2019

smbslt from Illinois

4.05/5  rDev -1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Brown with deep orange highlights, a finger and a half, tan (as advertised) head that disappears and not replenished
Wine barrel aromas, no real change as it warms.
Definitely a grape juice component not counteracted with enough sour until the finish.
Carbonation releases and smooths things out.
Smooth and subtle, May be the difference in traditional Flemish and the American (everything more upfront) take on the style.

Oct 05, 2019

LampertLand from Canada

3.92/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Vander Ghinste 'Oud Bruin' @ 5.5% , served from a 250 ml bottle
A-pour is brown from the small bottle to a dirty brown in the glass with a small tan head leaving a fine spotty lace along the tulip
S-bit dissapointing
T-fruity , thirst quenching , slight bitter swallow
MF-ok carbonation , feels full bodied
Ov-ok/good beer , not great
prost LampertLand

Jul 21, 2019

GuyFawkes from Illinois

4/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Bottled 3/6/19; drank 6/25/19 @ the Yarchives. See-through dark purple appearance. An even pour yielded a nice khaki head; minimal lace. Apple cider, tart cherry & mild clove notes in the nose. Medium thin mouthfeel. Tart cherry, apple cider & mild clove flavors; balanced, easy to drink but distinctly Belgian. I'd have another...

Jun 26, 2019

stortore from Illinois

4.08/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

11.2 ounce bottle into a flute. Bottled 2/15/16, had 7/27/18.

Pours a dark ruby, semi-opaque, with a two inch foamy head with good retention and lots of foamy lacing. Aromas of cherries, malt, grapes, plums, toffee, caramel, some vanilla. Smells somewhat sour and lightly tart. Flavors of grapes, plums, malt, cherries, caramel, oak, light vanilla. Tastes lightly sour. Smooth, a very good medium body, well carbonated.

Great aromas and very good flavors, fairly complex. Not really sour, but nicely balanced between the fruit and malt. Best fully warmed. Well worth a purchase.

Mar 05, 2019

TheDoctor from Canada

3.8/5  rDev -7.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Serving: Bottle
Brewed: Jan-6-2017


A:
Pours a semi-clear ruby brown with a tight little collar of beige head. Unspectacular retention; some spackled lacing. (3.5)

S:
Dirty old wood, balsamic vinegar, cherries.
(4)

T:
Sweet brown bread and sour red fruit. (3.75)

M:
Thinnish body with active carbonation and a lingering sweet finish. (3.75)

O:
This is a fairly nice beer.
The acidity is more subdued and the sweetness is more pronounced than in the handful of other examples I've had. It is pretty middle of the road but the flavor is very sweet. Brown sugar, cherries, cinammon roll, etc. It is a drinkable beer and by no means bad but it didn't quite scratch my itch. (3.75)

Sep 05, 2018

stevoj from Idaho

3.88/5  rDev -5.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Beautifully tart and delicious, if you’re a fan of the style. Reddish brown body with thick beige head. More towards the sour ale side, rather than the typical oud bruin. Very, very regional but expertly done. Nice!

Aug 27, 2018

Beersnake1 from California

4.1/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from fridge temp. Pours dark brown with quickly dissipating head. Nose is funk, leather, barn, sour cherries. Taste is sour, but not mouth puckering. Blackberries, gigs, lemons, and funk. Mouthfeel is really nice - sweet and light. Overall, a really nice Flanders sour.

Jul 01, 2018

MonDak_Joe1953 from Minnesota

4.3/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from 11.2oz bottle into glass. Label is stamped with Date Of Production as '02 15 16'.
Clear, ruby brown colored body, with reddish highlights when presented to light. Full half finger head, settles to thick ring, fed by rising bubbles, off white color. Some strings of lacing.
Vinous aroma with lemon (tart/sour). Very expressive.
Taste is expressed by the brewer as typical tart, followed by a slight bitterness, and then by a hint of sweetness. I agree but the after taste is sour, but brief. There is some funk there.
Medium mouth feel, good carbonation.
This is a sour beer that has tart, sweet, and funk aspects involved.
Easy to drink but has a variety of contributors - sour, sweet, bitter, and funk. To me, the aroma is the most expressive attribute of the beer.

Feb 28, 2018

smcolw from Massachusetts

4.05/5  rDev -1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Brown but light passes easily. Good starting head but it dies quickly. The lace is brief as it slides down the glass.

Dark sour cherry aroma with some darker sweet malt. No chocolate though.

Berry sweetness to start but it succumbs to the soured cherries. Very much like the Flanders Red style, just a little darker. Fuller bodied with weak carbonation. The aftertaste is short lived but tasty.

Feb 24, 2018

Cthulhusquid from Washington

4.38/5  rDev +7.1%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Look: One finger white head, brown body.

Smell: Same as below.

Taste: Brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, red wine, raisin, mild oak.

Feel: Medium body and carbonation, mild tartness upfront with a mild sweetness afterwards. Balanced finish.

Jan 19, 2018

Mindcrime1000 from South Dakota

4.2/5  rDev +2.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a single-serve bottle into a tulip...

Pours a deep translucent brown with little head, but excellent lacing.

The aromas are initially muted, but there is more going on that first meets the nose. Green apple and raisin both show up in equal measure, with lemon citrus in the background. Just wish there was more of it.

The palate is blessed with more than the nose, as the brew opens up as it warms and washes over the tongue, with a simple but balanced mixture of initial tart acidity, followed by a spiced raisin cake sweetness on the back of the tongue, and plenty of grainy texture for good measure.

The mouthfeel is outstanding. Light, crisp, and dry at the finish. Eminently drinkable.

Overall, this is a fine representation of the style.

Nov 25, 2017

Yoann from France

4.19/5  rDev +2.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a bottle to a snifter
A - Dark with brown Ruby reflections and no head
S - Sweet malts evoking berries, the alcohol presence is strong
T - Very sweet but everything is at its place
M - Pretty flat
O - Really sweet but with a good personality, I strongly recommend it!

Aug 23, 2017

Bruno74200 from France

4.06/5  rDev -0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Nice vinous complexity with red berries, good tartness, this beer is balanced all along, some grain too. The taste is quite sweet which balances the whole thing but it's a bit much from time to time in the session

Jul 23, 2017

GratefulBeerGuy from New Hampshire

4.1/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

World beer awards: Worlds best dark. Flanders sour ale. Redbrown. 11.2 oz.bottle.
Date of production: 11/22/16 consumed on 4/27/17.

A practically opaque brown with bright, ruby red hues when in direct light.
A moderate off-white cap stays high.

A very fermented wild red berry aroma, slick, cherry-scented malt, red grapes and tangy, alcohol heat lingering effect. Sour cherries and sweet apples. The malt and yeast complexity flows well together!

Red fermented grapes, malty sweet red apples and a big, earthy, sour yeast bite gives a very unique but classicly Flanders ale effect.

The sparkling biteof a ripe honey crisp apple, fermented cherries, and earthy bite keeps the light to medium mouthfeel very interesting.

The malt dominates with red apples, sour red grapes and cherries. The yeast gets sour/earthy. With a lingering sweet 'n sour effect on the palate. Decent depth of charecter.

Overall, This world class Flanders is fruit-forward, bold malt and yeast combo keeps it allinteresting, easy breazy- but complex. A unique and classicly driven expereince.

Apr 28, 2017

ImbibingInOmaha from Nebraska

4.9/5  rDev +19.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Look - Dark brown / red. Small white head that disappears quickly. Minimal legs / lacing.

Smell - Very dark. Vinegar, red apple, grape, plum, brandy. Slight toffee malt. Blindfolded you wouldn't be faulted for thinking you were smelling a Shiraz.

Taste - Immediately sour and dry. Fruit flavors abound, grape, apple, plum. The aftertaste is of slight alcohol and peanut shells; think a baseball stadium on a hot day - in a good way. One of the least offensive and most delicious sour ales out there.

Feel - Very light carbonation. Slick. The flavor profile probably makes it feel heavier than it is.

Overall - This is one of my personal favorites. Delicious beer that is an amazing break from most out there. The sour flavor is something to behold, balanced perfectly.

Apr 14, 2017

woodychandler from Pennsylvania

4.47/5  rDev +9.3%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

This will be another of my entries for New Odds & Sods Sunday (Week 633). I recently completed a massive horizontal of New Belgium beers & now I am drinking & reviewing (mostly) single-o beers from The Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody. My efforts are really beginning to pay off in that I am seeing movement & floor space + my guilt is beginning to abate.

From the bottle: "A traditionally-brewed Flanders red ale is blended with 18 month-old lambic to create this tart, refreshing, medium bodied benchmark ale. Reddish-amber with a tan head. Hints of tart fruit dominate the nose. The palate has apple and raisiny fruit notes."

I Pop!ped the cap & began a gentle pour, in keeping with my New Year's Resolution and my Lenten denial. Aggro pours from bottles are now (mostly) a thing of the past. Even my gentle pour was allowing a tart smell to waft forward from the glass, causing my lips to pucker uncontrollably. A vigorous in-glass swirl to buy me a little time produced a brief finger of foamy, light-tan head with lousy retention, quickly reverting to wisps. Color was Dark Brown to Very Dark Brown (SRM = >27, < 34) with garnet highlights & NE-quality clarity. Hey, beautiful! Nose smelled like my maternal uncle's homebrewed Montmorency Cherry wine! Ooooh. Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was so unexpectedly tart that I felt like Peter Boyle as the Frankenstein monster in "Young Frankenstein" right after the blind hermit dumps hot soup in his lap: Wahhh! I could have burst through a brick wall if I were a younger man. Tart, bordering on downright sour! Man, if you have ever had sour cherry anything - pie, preserves, wine, anything, you will understand. OMFG, this is fantastic! I used to get cherry preserves from the northwest coast of Michigan & smear them on toast for a nice morning jolt. This was very evocative of that. Of course, it was becoming rather difficult to open my mouth as it had puckered up as tight as the wrinkled grommet on my aft end. Time for a hit of asthma inhaler. Phew! Finish was intensely dry and pretty vinous, to the point that I could hear the Zephyr winds blowing across the Sahara Desert. Mmmphh. Mine was a "03 14" bottle. I want to revisit a younger version as my next act.

Apr 10, 2017

citizencane from Pennsylvania

4/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours dark cranberry red with some brown hues. Smells of apple with vinegar and some wood and maybe a hint of cranberry or raspberry at the end. Taste is similar but brighter yet with more wood. Feel is refreshing quenching and not dry at all. Good beer.

Mar 20, 2017

dro7 from California

4.19/5  rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Taste is green apple, vinigar, slightly sour, with oak cask notes. This is a good Flemish red, deep flavor with a medium body. Pairs well with a soft formage

Mar 13, 2017

emincems from Turkey

4.15/5  rDev +1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

one of the best sour ales and I don't understand why it's so underrated. balance of taste is incredible, slightly acidic sour with slightly woody bitterness and sweet malts. notes are molasses, red fruits, oak and lambic sourness. amazingly drinkable for a sour ale. balanced aftertaste with slight alcohol. a masterpiece.

Mar 04, 2017

AustinWadkins from Iowa

3.81/5  rDev -6.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours brownish/red with a minimal head that quickly forms a bubbly collar around the glass

Smells sweet, vinegar, basalmic, plump dark cherries, Caramel , candied apples

Taste falls a bit short for me. Tart, bit watery, raspberries, cherry

Overall not my favorite but glad I tried it

Feb 08, 2017

biboergosum from Canada

4.04/5  rDev -1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

250ml bottle - an old brown ale, aged in wood barrels for an unspecified amount of time, if my French isn't totally shot.

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with one chubby finger of puffy, finely foamy, and yet somewhat fizzy tan head, which leaves a bit of crumbling Swiss cheese lace in spots around the glass as it quickly evaporates.

It smells of sweet, brown sugar coated red apples, white wine vinegar, caramel/toffee malt, a hint of wafting smokiness, subtle wet woody notes, and a muddled dark orchard fruitiness. The taste is mildly tart cherries, plums, and apples, balsamic vinegar, grainy caramel malt, some lightly vanillan oakiness, subtle yeasty notes, and a further candy-like sourness.

The bubbles are quite understated in their barely-there frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and actually fairly smooth, just a very minor tartness tugging at my various palates. It finishes off-dry, the caramel malt sweetness and complex fruitiness playing us out with a certain calming, Old-World elan.

Overall, this is certainly a very well-made version of the style, perhaps not quite in Goudenband's rarefied air, but respectable in its own right. Not all that sour by today's retarded standards, but just enough so to perk up one's tastebuds, and round out the otherwise sweet nature of this offering.

Oct 18, 2016

Davepoolesque from Massachusetts

4.09/5  rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Dark reddish mahogany in color. Opaque in appearance. Getting those classic red/brown Flemish flavors of ripe cherry and earthy maly. Pretty delicious.

Oct 13, 2016

GreesyFizeek from New York

3.9/5  rDev -4.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Bottle purchased at AJ's Beer Warehouse in Henrietta, NY.

This one pours a nice dark reddish-brown, with a smal white head, and a bit of lacing, not much.

Smells kind of like a caramel apple- slightly sour apple, brown sugar, caramel, toffee, and black cherry.

This is suprisingly not really sour at all, there's a very mild tartness. It's just mostly very sweet for the style, but it still tastes pretty lovely. There's apple, cherry, caramel, toffee, and lots of sweet, sweet brown sugar. I definitely wish there was a bit more sourness here- that would make it very good for me. As it is now, it's just good.

This is medium bodied, with a sweet and candied feel to it, and a slightly lower level of carbonation.

This is not the best Oud Bruin that I've had- if it was a little less sweet, and a little bit sour, the balance would swing in a most wonderful direction. It's however still tasty and I enjoyed the bottle.

Sep 22, 2016