Rodenbach Grand Cru: Day 20 of my Advent Calendar exchange with my father, featuring a Belgian sour red/brown ale brewed to a strength of 6.0% abv. This is a blend of 1/3 young beer and 2/3 beer aged in oak vats for 2 years to make this unique blended sour beer.

Flavour: Horse blanket funk and apple cider vinegar up front with oak, raspberry tart and walnut in the middle and a finish that is mostly spicy coriander.

Overall Impression: Your palate gets taken for an interesting ride here, the funky flavours work really well with the fruity tartness and the spices round out the beer quite well. It was very interesting to drink this, the effects of the aged and the oak are quite noticeable.

Rating: Excellent at 8.5/10.

Food Pairing: I think some raspberry cheesecake would work well here, the tartness and cheese funk would work nicely together with the beer.

Here’s Mr Jackson himself, pioneer in the craft beer worls, talking about this particular beer on The Beer Hunter Show giving some interesting history and homage to this one. He is always interesting to listen too, too bad he passed away in 2007 as the craft beer world surly misses him.