3 Fonteinen Hommage

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

This was great. Solid red in color with not much head. Cherry and raspberry aroma. Quite tart in flavor which was a great suprise, with a hint of sour but not too much.

Bottle thanks to Jbrus: Pours a hazy red in color with a pinkish white head. Aroma, lots of raspberries up front, tart and funky, some sour cherry notes, lemon, amazing. Flavor, tart and funky, strong raspberry notes, don’t get much cherry maybe just the added tartness on the finish, some acidity but not overly sour. This was excellent.

MN Ratebeer Winter Gathering, January 12, 2008. Super thanks to hellomynameis and to whoever sent this to him! Cloudy light red color with no head. It looks very much like tropical punch. Strong sour aroma with a little raspberry. The raspberries come out in full in the flavor. Some cherries lingering in the background with a bit of cranberry, too. Wheat and a good hit of sourness. Not sour I could drink a ton of this, but it was great.

Poured from near the bottom of a 750 ml bottle. Murky, bloody pink. Pugent aroma of balsamic, sour blue cheese, watermelon, and old raspberries. Salty barnyard and oceanic funk. A sharp bite of ginger and tangy vinaigrette leads the flavor to cut the cheeks, before settling into a rounded, damp cheese mold, wet oceanwater fur and dried grass character; lots of phenol and sweaty yeast impartation. Lovely, with a firm burst of lactic acid leaking out from the bed of raspberry and dead cherry. Taut and precise, but offset with plenty of wild recklessness in the mouth. Memorable, and interesting; will revisit with a less yeast-ridden sample. Thanks for sharing, Zac!

There is a lot of barnyard and funk in this aroma with some sour cherry notes and a bit of raspberry sweetness. It is nicely carbonated with some soft fizz on the tongue. Lots of raspberry up front with a bunch of lactic sourness with tart cherries finishing it out. Really nice overall with some very interesting flavours.

Many thanks to hellomynameis for this great treat. Massive sour barnyard funk with excellent lactic character. Faint cherry and raspberry flavor. Wow. Lactic flavor with some funk. Amazing beer. Reminds me of a wisconsin spring. Ok, end wine pretense. My second tasting of this was better than I remembered it. Bottled at Falling Rock. The as tart and refreshing as I remember, but the cherry really smoothed out the finish.

Bottled. Aroma is very fruity with a lot of raspberry, some yeast and barnyard. Hazy, purple-red coloured with a pink head. Taste is intense fruity (raspberry),slightly sour/tart. It has a little yeast and barnyard. Mostly very fruity. Really fresh. Well done brew.

February 2007 Bottle Date, Sampled January 2008
A light carbonation for a bottle conditioned Lambic, the beer pours with a head that starts out one finger thick in height and is a pinkish stained, pale tan color. The beer sits in my glass a deep, cherry red color and shows a bright, lightly hazed, cranberry color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite fruit focused at first with aromas of cherries and raspberries being noticed. The raspberry note is not quite as dominant as I was expecting and cherry like aromatics come through more than I was expecting. I think a big part of this is the particular type of raspberries used here; they don’t have that huge, sticky, in your face raspberry distinctness that one usually finds; instead it is a much more fleshy, fruity, softer raspberry character that is almost cherry like at times. The pure fruit focus of the aroma quickly dissipates to a mix of fruit and typically funky Lambic aromatics. Musty, worn leather, moldy cotton, damp cellar notes, aged-damp wood aromas, uriatic acid, definite barnyard butyric notes, wild mushroom notes and perhaps a hint of ripe cheese all are quite noticeable and in fact become the more noticed part of the aroma.

Tart, yet not grippingly so, the beer is very dry. For some reason I was expecting a bit of residual sweetness, but I am glad there is none. The acidity of this beer has both the typical Lambic notes to it, but also a fruity acidity that is definitely berry like. This is a pretty soft interpretation of a Lambic, the acidity is certainly not overpowering here. This has quite a bit of body; fruit tannins and woody tannic textures add a heft to this brew. Fleshy cherry flavors up front yield to smooth raspberry notes towards the middle and lingering on into the finish. A bit of raspberry seed character (slightly tannic, a touch nutty, but definitely raspberry) is also found in the finish. Butyric acid notes add a soft funky note that underlies the entire flavor profile; sometimes sharp, with notes of musty leather, something a bit like a liquid phenolic-plastic soaked cotton ball, touches of damp wood and a light oak character.

As my palate gets used to the acidity and funk, the fruit flavors become more noticeable; specifically the raspberry notes pick up in intensity a bit. A bright, yet still bone dry, raspberry pulp flavor with touches of cherry flesh to it. The carbonation of this beer is definitely on the light side (especially for a bottle conditioned Lambic), but it does add a certain texture to the beer and allows for that tannic heft to come into play a bit more. The second pour of my 750ml bottle just seems to disappear far faster than I would like it to; this is so drinkable and tasty.

Not as intensely fruity as I was perhaps expecting, and it is on the soft side for a traditional Lambic (even for a 3 Fonteinen one). A bit harder, with a more pronounced fruit character would make this just about perfect. It seems to be missing that jam-like (sans sweetness of course) fruit intensity that I was expecting, though I like that this is quite dry and quaffable. Still this is a very good beer, though I have a feeling this won’t age nearly as well as the Framboos has / did.