Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale
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Tasting Notes
The aroma leads with dark fruit — dried cherry, plum, and a faint raisin note — undercut by a mild vinegary tang that signals the mixed fermentation at work. On the palate, the flavor balances malt sweetness against a restrained but persistent lactic sourness, with hints of cocoa and a touch of caramel in the background. The body is medium and slightly syrupy, which gives it more weight than most sour ales. The finish lingers with a clean acidity and a drying tannin edge that makes the next sip feel earned.
About the Brewery
Van Steenberge is a family-run brewery based in Ertvelde, in East Flanders, Belgium, with roots going back to the late 19th century. They produce a broad range spanning abbey-style ales, strong golden ales, and traditional sour styles, and they're probably best known internationally for Piraat and Augustijn. Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale is contract-brewed for the Monk's Café bar in Philadelphia, a longstanding Belgian beer destination, which gives the beer an unusual transatlantic identity for a traditional regional style.
Food Pairings
Aged gouda or Gruyère works naturally here because the beer's acidity cuts through the fat while the malt sweetness echoes the cheese's caramel notes. Braised beef or a carbonnade flamande — the Belgian beer-braised beef stew — mirrors the dark fruit and malt depth already present in the glass. Duck confit is another strong match, where the sourness does the work of a fruit sauce in cutting the richness. A slice of dark chocolate or a bittersweet chocolate torte rounds out the pairing side by playing against the beer's acidity without fighting it.
Style Guide
Flanders Oud Bruin, or Old Brown, is a Belgian sour ale defined by a balance of malt-forward sweetness and acetic or lactic sourness developed through extended aging and mixed fermentation, often with wild yeast and bacteria. It originated in the Flanders region of Belgium and is closely associated with breweries like Liefmans. Where its cousin the Flanders Red Ale leans heavily on Lactobacillus and wood-aged tartness for a sharper, more wine-like profile, the Oud Bruin tends to be darker, maltier, and somewhat rounder in its sourness, with more pronounced caramel and dark fruit character pulling against the acid.