Sour Beer #2: Rodenbach

The Easter Bunny left One Woman a Rodenbach. 

Rodenbach is a Flanders Red Ale from Belgium. It's a beer brewed in a very special way that involves cherry essence and oak vats. It's on the lighter side in terms of alcohol content (5.2%), but it packs so much flavor!

Here's what the all-star cast of The Other Woman and This One Guy visiting from NYC came up with to describe this cherry-tainted delight:

Color: Reddish Chestnut--the color of a Sorel horse! (- The Other Woman)
           A well-blended Manhattan (-This One Guy)
Smell: Delicious smell wafts across the room, a hint of malt, and just a tiny tiny pinch of hops.
Taste: Not as sweet as the last Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale, the Rodenbach has a mellow oak taste, as well as a cherry bon bon flavor. It has a little bitterness, but it's of the round, friendly kind--"Like the Agostino bitters," says This One Guy. One Woman compared it to the taste of candied grapefruit zest.  The flavors go by one at a time, but really quickly. This made me think of what musicians who work with digital/electronic sound call an "envelope" to talk about changing character of a sound over time. That's more detailed than the term "finish" that tasters often use, and it really gets at this idea of a continuous change in character over time. The Rodenbach then, has a very short but rich taste envelope. We paired this beauty with a buttery Rogue Creamery Caveman Blue and a juicy salad of mixed baby lettuces with lemon shallot vinaigrette. Yum!

Musical Pairing: Vortex Temporum, by Gerard Grisey (click to hear the first part of the piece). A French composer of spectral music, Grisey took what he learned by analyzing the physical properties of sound using all kinds of sound analysis technology, and used that to write acoustic music. Vortex Temporum is an at times giddy, other times contemplative exploration of sound that explodes normal conceptions of linear temporality. And envelopes.

BONUS pics:
First harvest of One Woman's baby lettuce growing experiment! So succulent and sweet. And edible!

"hello, world!"