June 2, 2009: Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

Most people have their own vices, those things in life that they can just never seem to get enough of. Some people are chocolate lovers, some people will lose their sanity without their daily cup of coffee, but me? I'm an ale addict. It feels good to get it off of my chest and admit that I have a crippling addiction to almost all kinds of ale. It doesn't even really matter what kind of ale it is either. You could throw almost any adjective in front of the word ale and I would love it. Dark ale, light ale, pale ale, brown ale, white ale, black ale, cream ale....you name, I'll drink. Tonight's beer, however, is one the first ales that I have come across in recent memory and really had to take a step back and think over before buying. The brew of the night is called Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. Sour ale? What in the name of everything that is holy on God's green earth is sour ale? The first thought that came to my mind was how unappealing sour ale sounded, but then my second thought was, "Why the hell not?"

Technically speaking, Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale is a type of beer called oud bruin, which in Flemish translates to "old brown". While oud bruins are usually brownish red or copperish in color, they really don't have much in common with the traditional English brown ale that you might be used to. Monk's Cafe, like all oud bruins, has a very distinct acrid taste that is hard to accurately describe in words. Sour is probably the best word to describe it, although simply calling it sour ale doesn't seem to quite cover it in my opinion. There's just an odd, sharp twinge to Monk's Cafe that certainly grabs the attention of your taste buds quickly, but I just could decide what to make of it all. Part of me was intrigued to try a beer that tasted completely unique and in some ways totally foreign to me, but the other part of me just wanted to pour that whole damn bottle out and demand a refund. I'm not saying that Monk's Cafe was either good or bad, but rather that it was so different from anything else that I have tried that I really couldn't decide what I felt about it. In the end, I decided that my curiousity had been asuaged and I don't think I'll be purchasing anymore Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale in the near future, but for all you beer fans out there, I think it's worth it to give this one a try and experience the odd sensation of an oud bruin for yourself.

Op uw gezondheid and a votre sante!
Ian

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