X01: Flanders Rauch
Dovetail Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle: Poured a reddish copper color ale with a dirty white foamy head. Aroma of smoked notes with some oak and cherry notes marries better than I was expecting. Taste is a mix of smoked malt notes which are very well balanced against oak and cherry notes from the Flanders red beer base. Body is about average with good carbonation. I wasn’t expecting anything great from this singular mix but this sib very well brewed and assembled.

Tasted in a Rastal Teku from a bottle on September 17, 2018. Aged 12+ months in ex-bourbon barrel-beer barrels with a Flanders Red blend of microbes. Very unique.

Now this is something unique, and they nailed it, delicious! The resulting beer smells of cherry with a faint whisper of smoke on the horizon along with some malt. Then the taste releases the smoke upon the palate, truly giving the drinker a smokey cherry with waves of apple, meat, mint, booze, tobacco, oak, elderberry, and balsamic. Complex, weird (in a good way), unique, yet very drinkable.

 

I tried this for the first time at FOBAB 2017 & really enjoyed it. This review is from the first bottle release & enjoyed in February 2018. At first glance a "smokey sour" sound very weird, but this beer is very good especiially if you have an adventurous spirit. It is as advertised - a smokey, sour & funky sipper. The great thing to me is how balanced it is & how the different nuances & flavors work together. This isn't a "smoke-bomb, "sour-bomb" or "funk-bomb", its a well crafted & balanced beer that it completely unique.

Props to Dovetail for blending tradition & innovation. I'm looking forward to more X-series experimental beers from them in the future!

 

Weird as fuck - initially its hard to get a handle on - there is the Flanders red flavors - dark cherries balsamic notes, and funky but then you get the smoke coming through and it adds this weird dimension to the beer. Its not a traditional Flanders oud bruin and frankly to best enjoy this beer you should just approach it without any consideration to style or preconceived expectations.

Overall this was an exceptional beer both in craft and its uniqueness.

 

A very unique take on the style. Smoke is definitely present in both nose and taste (more so in the nose), but it is fairly balanced with the traditional Flanders flavors. This won’t appeal to the masses, but you’re into the style it’s worth checking out.

Dark brownish red, thin layer of clingy foam, minimal spotty lace. Loads of funk in the aroma... smoked gouda, sterile gauze, and smoked malt, wet wood. Brettanomyces funk all over this one.

Taste is super complex, wet wood and cheesy barrel funk, dark cherry skin and stonefruit, balsamic reduction, smoked malt wafting throughout. Tart and savory. Rustic as all get out. Acidity and light smoke play well together, leathery tobacco leaf Brett presence figures in too. Medium bodied, easily sippable.

Very complex and unique style-wise. It falls somewhere in the far outer limits of the Flanders tradition, especially with the Rauchbier base. From the 19 barrels into blending tanks, it has emerged as a complex and mature Oud Bruin. It's awesome and strange at the same time, in a new experimental vein from Dovetail (surprisingly non-traditional). Looking forward to more barrel experiments like this, even though it will be likely misunderstood and polarizing to the public at large.

At this point, traditional Flanders Oud Bruin and Red are nearly as endangered as lambic was 30 years ago. Current iterations from Rodenbach & Liefmans are adulterated and sweetened nearly to an alarming degree. Few regional brewers remain that produce the style traditionally. X01 is a historical thowback that does justice to the rustic & wilder side of Flanders ales that once flourished in the Roeselare region during the 19th century, adding Dovetail's smoky hybrid spin on the style.