3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze 1998 (50th Anniversary)

Formerly brewed at 3 Fonteinen
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Beersel, Belgium

750 Ml thanks to fordest. Pours a big head that dissapate quickly. Sour start and finish but very little acidic taste. Very good.

Rating #1000!
750 ml bottle thanks to padrefan98 as an xmas present. Lots of sour fruit aromas off this hazy golden pour. Hugest head. Poured super slow, but still got more head than beer. Lots of bubbly carbonation on the tounge. Very citrus flavor. Ruby red grapefruit flavor with some sour cherry and grapefruit rind. Not nearly as acidic as some lambics. A pleasure to drink.

Many many thanks goes out towards Clark for opening a bottle of this, shame you left the other bottle at O’Briens. I don’t feel so bad about leaving my 2004 Speedway behind now. Once again Clark’s review is much more detailed that mine but I will add my two cents to a rating of this brew:

Poured surprisingly clean and was topped by a big foamy white head and had excellent strings of lace work upon the glass. The nose detected lots of barnyard and brett yeast character along with fleeting vapors of floral meadows and lemongrass. There was also a strange corky and steel nature to the nose that shows some damage in aging.

The flavors are very rustic and farmyard up front with some lingering acidic fruit. I too found the metallic finish but unlike Clark, Chris and Mike (sorry guys you are wrong) I did not seem to mind it as much as my rating proves. The mouth feel is soft yet does have a crisp around the edge bite to keep things interesting. I loved this beer and would truly freak out for another chance to try it. A work of brewers art...THANKS AGAIN CLARK!

Bottle shared at O’Briens on 3/23/07. I also bought one to go, but left it at O’Briens. There goes $45. Yay for being an idiot….
Nice to see this available at a beer bar in the States. At least now I can hold on to the bottle I do have in my cellar. Though I’m not so sure how long I plan on holding it, after having tried this bottle. This particular bottle had a distinct metallic flavor, not sharp and poignant, but rather sweeping in towards the end and blanketing the palate with soft metal notes. Hmm, that makes little sense, but at the time, Chris and I were better able to describe it. Suffice to say, the metallic notes definitely cut in to the experience in a negative way.
Not that I plan on scoring this beer based on this bottle. No, that would be silly. A bottle the next day and pretty much every review on this site mentions nothing of metal. Obviously just an off or mishandled bottle.
The aroma was rather impressive, nonetheless, and I didnt note the metal there. Very fruity, with tons of soft brett suggestions, none of the stronger, sharper lactic or pedio (or less of it, anyways) of the Cantillon, De Cam and newer 3F beers. And that’s fine, it’s still got a lovely funkiness to it, very musty, rustic and lightly sweaty, with a vibrancy that defies its age. Nice strength of aroma as well, with what lactobacillus notes there are, adding a little snap to it.
So back to the flavor, it’s obvious this is made from a very similar stock as the 1999 vintage. Fruity, very malt apparent (not sweetness, of course, but with a soft, well-malted texture) and highly bretty. Again, I prefer the stronger, more aggressive nature of the newer 3F gueuzes and Cantillon, as this one remains rather light and more "Belgian brett golden ale influenced" if you will.
Great stuff, but I’d be hard pressed to believe that even a bottle in great condition would be radically different from the 1999-2001 3F gueuzes. Appearance/mouthfeel/texture/carbonation are all perfectly to-style. No alcohol noted, of course.

Pour from a 750mL. Thanks Brian! Nose full of phenomenal cleric acidity, with wisps of freshly grated Buddha’s hand and warming fibers of cotton. At this point, I’m getting frustrated with my lack of palate skills in the lambic department. I wasn’t prepared for a two onslaught of the finest in the land and now I’m left grabbing for words. However, much like my experiences with single malts, I can still tell when one excels from the pack and this one does like none I’ve seen. Quality is still something I can derive and I’m glad to know that this destroys the competition. Amazing lemon character throughout the horsey world. Silky slide of white head. Fuming carbontation and exceptional wispy perfume. Soft and supple with light salty malt height. Perfection in balance. Original rating: 4.5/8/4/9/5/19

Dark gold and hazy. Large frothy head with small lacing. Tart and lemon citrus. Yeast, dough and a touch of the funkiness. Citrus and some notes of vinegar. Reminds me a touch of soda bread for some reason. Dry palate and a tart finish.

Dec 17, 2007 (the beershine bottle): Hazy beige, dull. No head, but there’s still carbo (this bottle was frozen). Aroma of pear, leather and cloth-wrapped cheshire. Appetizingly tart with slight leather, peach and grapefruit. Smooth, complex gueuze with a sweetish splash in the finish to make it that much more approachable. 8 2 7 4 16 = 3.7

Dec 12, 2006 (the sk8viking bottle): Hazy, vibrant dark straw colour. Aroma of leather, pear, wood and light sweat. Relatively smooth and sweet. Light malts on the palate with hints of leather and a shade of wood. Way too mellow for my tastes, lacking the depth and nuance of a classic gueuze.

bottle. murky orange color. fruit and wood aroma. soft and creamy. dry and sour. very complex. very good.