Cuvee One
Redbud Brewing Company

 

750 mL bottle poured into a snifter.

Appearance - Deep golden body. Small white head with a thin collar.

Smell - Fruity. Smells sweet, but a light caramel sweetness. Mildly yeasty.

Taste - Sweet. Caramel sweetness. Belgian yeast kicks in and tempers the sweetness with some fruitiness. Cardboard bitterness in the back end.

Mouthfeel - Medium low carbonation. Medium heavy. Unpleasant finish.

Overall - It was ok until the finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle from coldmeat23. Served in a snifter. Bottle aged roughly 2 years.

A - White foam settles to a thin collar, wisps, and minimal lace. Hazy peach body.

S - Smells a bit aged, with sweet, fruity notes, a touch of phenolic yeast, and a hefty dose of sweet candi sugar. There's a slight muskiness to this, but I think it's the yeast and not any sign of nascent infection. The Belgian yeast isn't the most expressive, and this is very sweet as a result.

T - The taste is better, with more phenols, grain, and bread to help offset the near-cloying sweetness level. Lots of sweet fruits, with an emphasis bit of pear and white grape, as well as some candi sugar and light honey notes.

M - Medium-full body supports the higher ABV, and there's nary a trace of the 9%. Lower carbonation, and quite chewy. Could use more spritz, but not bad otherwise.

D - Not terrible, but largely mediocre. There aren't any off flavors, but this is exactly what I don't want from a Belgian Strong. Age seems to have mellowed whatever spiciness the yeast imparted, but I didn't feel 2 years should be unreasonable for this style and ABV.

 

 

 

 

 

BlueOkie felt that I needed to round out my Redbud Cuvee experience with #1 and #4 when we met at the last Jackie O's release. All I can say is that this is the kind of generosity that is uncalled for but is also so great about the beer community. Thanks Scot!

Poured into an Ovila chalice. This one is cloudy, a ruddy orange color with darker hues of umber. It was pretty tough to get any head off of Cuvee One, though some persistent bubbles akin to tapioca pearls topped some of the brew throughout the majority of the first glass.

The aroma is really nice. There's a very straightforward and typical Belgian yeast profile, but also underlying this is a fun and inviting flavor profile more unique to this beer. The Belgian aspect is faintly peppery and shows off estery notes of banana and cardamom. Cuvee one shines when you start to detect resplendent aromas of tangerine and apricot. There's even the notion of white grape juice on the back end. I would call the aroma quite soft though, and nicely balanced.

Cuvee One tastes more classic in a Belgian Golden Ale sense than the nose would suggest. Clove and peppercorn flavors rule here. Fairly sweet, the candi sugar is in evidence. It would have been interesting to try this fresh, but I am imagining that this bottle is better off for the minimal age it has gained.

Chewy mouthfeel surprisingly; sweet, and with a smooth finish. The alcohol is very well hidden.

Overall not my favorite in the Cuvee Series, but this is still a very enjoyable beer. Redbud seems to be producing the best beer in Oklahoma at the moment.

 

 

 

750 ml bottle poured into a pint glass.

A-Pours a deep golden orange. Limited head with some lacing.

S-Mellow banana aroma with some sharp alcohol notes.

T-Sweet malt is the primary flavor. There's a hint of sugar just before the finish. There's a sticky bitter finish which lasts.

M-Very sticky on the mouth. There's a bit of a bit on the front of the tongue as you drink.

O-Mellow aroma but a big malt body leads to a sticky and salivating mouth. Fairly drinkable. Drinking a bottle which aged for about 15 months, very similar to when first released.

A sweetish Belgian-style golden ale with a strong estery fruit character, spicy balance, and long warming finish. Succulent and full for lovers of mead-like mulled beverages.

Cuvee One pours with a deep golden, light amber color with a dense and diffused honeyish glow due to the mild yeasty haze. Low head character to start, but a firm swirl of the glass brings about a creamy white and dense head that falls under its own weight.

Honey, candied cherries, and spicy peppers and alcohol fill the olfactories with a background note of sugar cookies, yeast, apples, oranges, and pears. Low on hops, only a slight herbal tone gives the most modest glimpse into any bitter rebuttal to come.

Malty sweetness further reinforce the notion of honey. Combined with a few floral and estery tones, the beer begins to taste like meads. White pepper, curraco, clove, cinnamon, and alcohol lather into a mulled spice taste for balance and intrigue. Red and green apples, cherries, tart berries, pears, and oranges all share the stage while reinforcing malt sweetness. With low hop bitterness, the beer's sweet taste has full command.

Rich and full bodied, the beer's sweetness throughout reaches near-cloying proportions. But the alcohol helps to thin the beer while the peppery spice helps with the balance not provided for by hops. Finishing with a warm and linger sweetness, the beer leaves a lot of residual sugars on the mouth.

Cuvee One is a nice and enjoyable beer, especially for those of us who don't mind a sweeter Belgian-style ale from time to time. But the lack of depth, complexity, and layers causes me to focus too much on the sheer sweetness of the malts.

Thanks BlueOkie!