Corsendonk Brewery
Turnhout, Belgium
Imported by: Phoenix Imports
Baltimore, MD
Available: DC, FL, IN, LA, MD, MA, NJ, OH, PA, VA, WA, WI
The Corsendonk brewery, best known for its rich abbey-style beers, brews this lighter, fruited beer spiced with coriander, orange zest and licorice.
ABV: 3.1
ABW: 2.5
Color: 2
Bitterness: not significant
Original gravity: 1051
In the pretty package (a sparkling wine bottle with metal closure), and in the glass (beautiful opalescent greenish gold with foam more like whipped cream), it doesn't look like beer. The lovely, spicy, floral aroma doesn't smell like beer. On the palate, it is semi-sweet, satisfying and fruity, more like a perry or peach, even mead, than apple, with a clean finish, and it's not like any beer I've tasted. Complex it's not, but tasty, low in alcohol, and refreshing, especially with fruit and cheese or in place of champagne at a brunch of Belgian waffles smothered with Vermont maple syrup, crispy bacon, and sliced Washington State organic apples and freshly shelled walnuts.
This beer is very different, make no doubt about it. Cold, it pours so cloudy that the color is indistinguishable from a light golden yeast paste. The white head billows and floats atop mirroring the cloudy sentiment beneath. Aroma conspires and intimidates my memories–where have I experienced these aromas before? Lemony, citrus, coriander-spice, fruity apple, grainy/bready. Taste is a wallop of radical sweetness. My kind sentiments dwindle as I realize that this beer is simply much too sweet, reminding me of sugary soda pops. Perhaps if accompanied with a bright and flavorful blue cheese, it just might work.
Founder of Merchant du Vin and the Pike Brewing Co., Charles Finkel is a pioneer in the marketing of craft beers in America.
Author of the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, founder of the Great American Beer Festival and a Beer Examiner at www.examiner.com, Papazian is a leading voice in beer and brewing.
