Duchesse De Bourgogne

So, as I have said before, at least in my bio, I love sour beers. They are easily one of my three favorite beer styles. I believe the "proper" term is "sour head," for what that's worth.

Sours originated in Belgium and go by many different names: Flanders/Flemish Brown/Oud Bruin, Flemish/Flanders Red, Unblended Lambic, Gueuze Lambic, Fruit Lambic, and Berliner Weisse (the only one from Germany). I will try to address each of these as they come up in future posts. Today's beer is (I think) a Flanders brown that I DID NOT actually drink in Belgium (unfortunately).

Duchesse De Bourgogne, which I will refer to as "Duchesse" from this point on, comes in both 750 mL corked and caged bottles and your standard 12 oz bottle, often sold in four packs. Unfortunately Duchesse is expensive, but fairly common. $11-14 for the 750 mL and $21-23 for the 4-pack.

Duchesse pours a brilliant mahogany with a fast-fading (due to the increased acidity of the sour styles), multi-finger, off-white tannish head. This is probably one of the most beautiful beers I have ever seen. Duchesse smells of oak, vanilla, and red skinned apples. The taste is sour, but not overly so, and has a lovely vanilla smoothness that balances the sourness. Duchesse is quite refreshing; not too thick, but not watery, smooth feeling and has mild carbonation once in the mouth. The finish on this beer is tinged with sourness, but goes down easy.

Verhaeghe
Duchesse De Bourgogne
TCSH - 9.5/10
Aka - Great introductory sour, and still a classic to go back to whenever.

Dallas