Verhaeghe Duchesse Cherry Sour

Country: Belgium

Brewery: Brouwerij Verhaeghe

Style: Sour Ale

Format: 330ml Bottle

ABV: 6.8%

“Duchesse Cherry“ is as its name suggests a cherry beer, brewed only with real Belgian cherries (no flavour enhancers or cherry extracts). The fruit comes from the region of Sint-Truiden in Limburg (Belgium).

Unlike the more famous Kriek beers, the basic beer of the "Duchess Cherry" is not a Lambic. but a Flanders red ale of mixed fermentation. This beer has a top fermented base and is then matured in oak casks where it undergoes a second wild fermentation. The tannins in the foeders (very large barrel used for the storage of great Bordeaux wines) give the Duchess Cherry its sweet, fruity, refreshing and bittersweet taste.

Once the base beer is ready, the master brewer adds 20 Kg of "Kriek Gorsem" (Belgian sour cherries) per 100 liters to the beer. For 6 months, the beer macerates with the cherries. The cherries give a fresh and fruity taste to the beer which has a sweet and sour base. After 24 months of process, the beer is ready to be filtered and racked.