Duchesse is one of my favourite beers from Belgium, so it was with great delight that I saw last year Verhaeghe had produced two new variants of this great Flanders beer.
This is the Duchesse Choco Cherry variant. To the normal Duchesse, 20kg of fresh Belgian cherries are added to the maturation barrels, along with some chocolate essence.
As always, the Duchesse starts with quite a sharp sourness, but that quickly fades with the softer, fruitier malt character pushing through as the beer opens up. The cherries add a nice fruity character as well as providing a different sour note to the usual balsamic vinegar character. The chocolate is subtle, almost more like cocoa powder than having any sweetness, but is does provide an extra layer of interest, and is balanced quite nicely.
I’m not even going to give the obligatory ‘sour warning’, I mean its almost like a dessert beer. For those still pulling the squint – time to harden up!
This is a mixed fermentation ale aged in oak barrels for one year
The classic Flanders Red Ale - the Duchesse of Burgundy
Verhaeghe's Duchesse with 20kg of sour Limburg cherries added per 100 litres of beer
A delicious blend of two Petrus beers used to create this traditional Flanders Red ale
by Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm Breweries)
The tribute beer to Alexander Rodenbach, reintroduced in 2016, 30 years after it was first created
by Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm Breweries)
A Flemish Red Ale featuring 67% aged beer and 33% young beer
A typical Flanders Red Ale from this seventh-generation family brewery
The original flanders oud bruin from the old family brewery Verhaeghe, this is an unblended cask aged beer
A Belgian Export Porter from a brewery more known for their Flemish sour ales
A fruit beer featuring sweet cherries from the family Brouwerij Verhaeghe
The classic Flanders Red Ale - the Duchesse of Burgundy
Verhaeghe's Duchesse with 20kg of sour Limburg cherries added per 100 litres of beer
A flemish mixed fermentation ale with northern sour cherries added during the barrel maturation
Verhaeghe's special Christmas beer is a blonde ale with wheat and spices
The original flanders oud bruin from the old family brewery Verhaeghe, this is an unblended cask aged beer
