3 Fonteinen Doesjel

Brewed by 3 Fonteinen
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Beersel, Belgium

apple juice cloudy appearance, no head whatsoever.A very mild geuze vinegar aroma. A malted masked taste that fills the mouth over time, with mild fruit and vinegar. Very easy drinking, controlled tartness and refreshing. Stomach warming.

12.7oz Bottle. Noses in immediate, tart cobweb funk, including old lemon rinds and dust. It’s all a good thing, with real cheese and cotton depth. Classically Drie, but with a fair amount of surprising bright acidity. Pours a flat (expected) dirty gold and almond. Flavor is rich and wildly tart. Tends towards many Cantillon examples. Brazen acidity climbs up with passionfruit juice, blue cheese funk, and candied apples. Faint sweetness, lots of cobwebs and dryness. The cottony, airy quality of most Drie Guezes is subdued and flattened by the deadness of the flatness, but it also some shining, flagrant acidity to really carry curt tartness that is just impeccable. Complex and flailing with funk. Delicious, even without carbonation. A different animal. I must admit, that I still crave carbonation, but can handle the new nuances and intricacies that show with a flat version of Gueze. Yummy.

Poured a lightly hazed orange amber color. The aroma had tart citrus notes with light funk. Citrusy tart lemon flavor. Some acidity but all was to the lighter side of things. Really not too bad.

Light amber color with almost no head. Smell is acidic, fruits, tart, wheat. Taste is barnyard, hay like, less carbonation, sharp feel, fruity, and tart. Very dry and sour, lacking some complexity. Needs some more time in the bottle.

This one was a huge disappointment considering what I have come to expect from 3 Fonteinen. Nice sour aroma with yeast. Strange, very thin palate. Sour flavor, but it is like a lambic-light. And its not like a Jacobins or anything like that, but for a lambic brewer with their reputation, and the price of the beer, it doesn’t get there. Thin palate, and nearly clear palate.

A bit disappointing from this brewery. Maybe my expectations of them are just too high. Hazy yellow pour with little head. Slightly funky aroma but very dull. The flavor is much the same with a bit of funk and faint citrus.

Bottle, bought @ Ølbutikken, Cph.
Well, the cork was nearly impossible to get out... but it finally came to. Pours a clear dark amber. A small, creamy, off-white head is created while pouring, but it soon dimishes into small puddles of foam on the surface, clinging to the sites of my glass. Few, tiny bubbles flow lazily towards the surface. Aroma has lots of oranges, a good oaky feel as well as a classic funkiness. Low carbonation, almost flat. Flavour is quite mild, only medium sour, some citric and orange notes keeping up well with the aroma. The finish has a pleasant dryness, where the wood again makes its presence known. Very clear oak mixing with apple, lemons and oranges. It is a very good gueuze, but somehow it feels restrained - as if 3 fonteinen was reluctant to go the whole way and settled for something just below their average standard. I’ll still enjoy sipping the rest of the bottle :o)

Bottle thanks to sloth: Pours a mostly still transparent brass orange with a thin ring of bubbles. Aroma of tart lemony citrus. Body starts lightly pale malty with puckering tartness before a drier, crisp sour finish. Not overwhelmingly sour, but could use a little more sweet balance and carbonation.