$28.95 for the 750 mL bottle. I might like this in the end, but I don't think that it will be very good value. Anyway, I'm invested to this point, so here we go. Capped and corked, the beer opens with a really healthy pop. Good gun-smoke. Carbonation is HIGH - not exactly a gusher, but this beer is extremely carbonated. Orange body. Lace is very good as well. Pretty. The carbonation makes for a lively mouthfeel. I'd heard rumor that this was really tart, but it isn't, at least not on my palate...
Notes on beers brewed by
Brouwerij Lindemans
Lindemans Faro Lambic
Thanks go out to Kevin for hooking me up here. Pour is a rich looking, brown with a decent amount of head considering the style. This is not a highly carbonated style and it has the tendency to feel a bit flat. Nose and tastes are crushingly sweet. Very pronounced sugars and candy notes dominate just about everything else that might be competing for your attention. The mouthfeel and some of the tastes (and indeed the look) remind me quite a lot of Duchesse but obviously significantly sweeter....
Lindemans Gueuze
I'm really not at all sure what is going on with the Gueuze from Lindemans in GA, since it used to be all over the place with the Cassis and the Peche etc., but of late (the last 18 months to two years or so) this seems to have all but disappeared form stores in GA. This is one of two bottles that I have rescued from a couple of relatively obscure stores in the last couple of years. One came from Showcase Beverage in Carrollton, GA, USA. 355 mL bottle, foiled, capped and corked. Dimpled...
Lindemans Kriek
$7.99 from Showcase Beverage, Carrollton, GA, USA. 750 mL bottle, capped, corked and foiled. Well, it is what it is and this always confuses the Lambic landscape. Quite how one goes from a beer (or beers) that Lindemans puts out over to a typical Cantillon and call them both Lambics is always a bit of a mystery, but there you are. Dark magenta pour with a pink head and some good carbonation. Aroma and tastes are all black cherries, and a nice, non-artificial one at that. Obviously this is...
Lindemans Apple
355 mL bottle, Arbor Place Beverage. Finally got around to trying this after a very long time of observing it on the shelves and wondering if I would like it. High, fluffy, off-white head and some lace. The body is an attractive, pale gold, lightly clouded and mildly carbonated combo. The tastes and the aromas are linked together via a over-sweet, artifical apple flavor. Doesn't seem very natural at all. Not much else present. Quite drinkable, but only in very small quanties. Another Lindeman...
Lindemans Oude Gueuze Cuvée René
If you want to know what traditional, real farmhouse cider from the West of England tastes like, the closest you can get in the USA is this stuff. If you were to remove the carbonation and add a hint of apple flavor to a Cuvée René, you would have yourself a pretty decent impression of a dry, farmhouse scrumpy. Champagne like, effervescent pour with a fast receding head. Dry, and mildly acidic and sour. Clear yellow pour. A departure for most beer drinkers, but a nice refreshing summer drink....
Lindemans Framboise
Bright red pour with the classic, frothy, large pink head. Fairly serious pink lacing! Intense syrupy raspberry taste and equally strong aroma of sugary fruit. Definitely "one for the ladies", and despite its qualifications I can barely ever think of this as beer. Don't get me wrong, I like to drink it occasionally (very occasionally), but it remains a novelty drink for me, and not one I can take that seriously. Great conversation starter, but really only good for light drinking summer days...
Lindemans Pêche
A pale orange/pink pour with a head that disappears pretty quickly. Unlike the Cassis, this looks like beer with the pale orange look of a lager. The aroma and initial tastes are very fruity, but in a wine cooler type way. Very sweet initially that drops off. Even thouggh there is a distinct fruit flavor, it's not especially "peachy". It reminds my of cheap champagne or a desert wine with some apples thrown in. This is a very light drink, good for non-serious summer consumption, but not really...
Lindemans Cassis
$7.99 750 mL, Arbor Place Beverage, Douglasville, GA, USA. About twenty-five years ago when I was taking my first tentative steps as a teenager into alcohol, one of the the most common drinks that we used to experiement with was a "Lager and Black". Very simply this would be a pint of macro lager, often something like a Carling Black Label, Carlsberg, Heineken or the like, with a large dash of Blackcurrant cordial (syrup) thrown in the top. This was simply a variation on the much more common...