3 Fonteinen Hommage

bottle courtsey of thecheeseman: pours almost dead flat looking a bright clean cherry red no head. aroma is almost molsy funk, astringent and a tart fruit. flavour is also a moldy kinda funk that blends into the very tart astringent fruit,very cherry like. finiahes a wonderful bitter funkiness.

Date: 11/17/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Throwdown 3

Appearance: cloudy dark red, frothy pink head,
Aroma: tart fruity aroma with a lots of musty wood,
Flavor: sweet and tart cherry flavor, nice wood character leads to a funky cobweb character, long tart finish,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 02/23/2008
Mode: bottle
Source: cellar tasting

Appearance: clear dark ruby red, wispy beige head,
Aroma: aroma is all musty and sweat with the tart fruit receeding into the background,
Flavor: heavy bret flavor with lots of funky character and sweaty leather,
Overall: totally different than last time,

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

In short: An excellent soft and juicy raspberries & cherries lambic.
How: Montreal-crew sour-beer tasting. Bottle from Goldorak. Fresh, drank a few months after it came out.
The look: Cloudy red body with almost no head
In long: Very fruity beer. Raspberries of course but also quite a bit of cherries. A little spicy on the tongue (thyme and cinnamon) but just a little. Lambic part of the beer keeps a low profile behind the mountain of fruits. A little more funkyness and acidity would have been great. Maybe time will balance it off a bit. Carbonation is very soft, maybe a bit too much so. Compared to its predecessor (3F Framboos) the Hommage is softer, juicier, less funky and a lot less aggressive. As it stands I also prefer the Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus over the Hommage. I’ll give it a year or two and see what happens. Don’t get me wrong the beer is good, very good. Still I was a little disappointed but only because the original Framboos was so great. That’s unfortunate but my expectations were as high the dudes in the three first rows of a Grateful Dead concert.

Bottle. Hazy orange brown with a small head. Aromas are musty and sour. Barnyard with vanilla. Woody with astringent vinegar. Flavours are sour, acidic lemon juice and vinegar. Some raspberry sweetness. Addictive.

Courtesy dsnowden. Pink-purple color with floes of white soapy head. Grapeskins, raspberries on the aroma and a surprisingly low amount of sour or acetic aromas, but there is a nice bedrock of funk that the fruity aromas are lying on top of. Taste is smooth, elegant, and vinous. The fruit is well apparent and even with the sourness rather than bowled over by its intensity. The finish is dry and moderately sour, and leaves the fruit and remnants of the yeasty funk behind on the palate. A fantastic, well-balanced fruit lambic.

Courtesy dsnowden. Pours a dense, cloudy, star ruby grapefruit body. A fizzy head quickly dissipates almost completely. The aroma is like a fresh fruit garden. Raspberries, strawberries, cherries and blackberries exude freshness, while moderately funky barnyard scents let you know this thing means business. The flavor is sweeter than I was expecting, no doubt the result of the high fruit content. Still, ample Drie Fonteinen sour funkiness is on full display, even if a bit less potent than usual. The body is very lightly syrupy, with moderate liveliness. Finishes mostly dry and sour, with excellent concentrated fruit flavors. The fruit really is the star of the show here. Excellent brew.

Courtesy dsnowden. Thanks for sharing this rare gem Dan!! Pours a deep red, with not much of a head. Big raspberry and cherry notes fill the nostrils mixed in with some tart sourness, but not overwhelming at all. The fruit has a big presence here. The flavor was quite divine. The fruits and sourness almost blended together perfectly. Not too sour or acidic, but not too fruity either. The raspberries really show up right up front, and the sourness lingers in the finish and the aftertaste. Another excellent offering from these guys!

My Bottom Line:
Spicy, herbal ideas are rooted in bursting raspberries, leading to gum-licking sour goodness and the perfect dose of fruity sweetness. Drie Fonteinen have crafted another masterpiece of a lambic which should be phenomenal a few years from now.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-There is no ring of foam to crowns the murky deep red.
-The body is sturdy and carbonation suitably lively (yet it never impedes on the flavor profile).
-These wild herbal notes within the fruitiness are almost coniferous at times.
-When paired with its predecessor, 1999 Framboos, we could notice many similarities in the aroma, yet this Hommage was not as mature and cohesive flavor wise.
-The juicy raspberry tartness makes you imagine a few seeds going by.
Addendum:
-This is already getting better and better. The nose is simply stunning and the flavor profile seems to be following now. A year or two from now, it could very well be as orgasmic as the Framboos.

Bottles. And more bottles. God this is good.