Acetic acid, well…let’s be truthful about it…vinegar.  Is that a taste that you’d normally associate with a decent beer?  No, neither would I.

However, Flanders Red Ale is a funny old beast, and Duchesse De Borgogne is to my mind one of the best examples of this style. I’ve always been told to think of Flanders Reds as more wine than beer, and I reckon that’s good advice to anyone who’s never yet had the pleasure of this style…

The pour results in a half-inch of head that soon collapses to a sparse covering atop a brilliant deep garnet clarity.  As you raise the glass to your lips you’re already starting to almost taste it as the aroma is quite potent: vinous old Cabernet, suffused with oaky notes, earthy maltiness and a faint tang of the finest red wine vinegar…then you’re into the ale itself: a velvety, yet refreshing, effervescence masks the relative thinness of body which brings an initially sharp acetic note that quickly smooths out to soothe your palate with thin, -but firmly evident- malt and that old familiar oaky red-wine backbone.

The finish is long lasting and leaves your thirst feeling quenched…but leaves you most definitely needing more…

I got my 250ml bottle from Beers of Europe http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk for £1.88