3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Vintage (all from 2002-*)

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

Bottle sampled on 2/13/07: Pours a hazy dark golden bronze with a frothy, well-lacing white head. Dry, earthy, funky cheesy barnyard aroma has decent complexity. Body starts fairly full and with an earthy pale maltiness, nicely-balanced with a good, drier cheesy complexity toward a slightly bready finish. A nice gueuze.

Date de mise en bouteille 07/03/2003. Hazy orange-gold with a large white head. Aroma of yeast, sour apple and dewy spring cottage garden. The taste is grapefruit with dusty books and paper stored in old barns and attics. Sour, but if you persevere you pick out a distant honey sweetness. The result is fresh, clean, immensely drinkable: a wonderful example of the brewer’s craft. This is the reason I love beer.

Bottle. Golden beer with a strongish head. The aroma is quite sour with a sweet finish, the flavour is very sour with a vinegar and dry finish. Overall an average beer.

Bottle. Careful when you open the bottle. The cork and metal really comes in handy here. Small and quickly disappearing white head. Hazy orange body. Complex fruity aroma and flavor of oranges and some kind spice I cannot really figure out. For a geuze this is relatively sweet still, though, with a pleasant sharp edge.

Huge pungent Gueze-y nose: funky, horse blanket mustiness, the whole thing. Dark murky gold color with a low head. Soft malt base with a hint of apples. Sour and puckering end. Smooth overall and amazingly well balanced. Sophisticated and unique. Nice!

Bottle dated 07/03/03. I honestly don’t know what t o make of this beer. I’ve had geuze before, but this was such an extreme example. The beer is a lovely honey colour in the glass with a big foam head. The strong aroma has bags of apples, sourness, musty animal smells and a hint of sweetness. Describing the flavour does it no justice at all - is at once foul and appealling. In one mouthfull it is a musty, sour, eye-wateringly sour with the smell of a restaurant kitchine floor - old cheese and rotten veg. Another taste is tart but refreshing, light bodied with a citrus tang, oakey dryness in the finish. Its either disgusting or the most complex brilliant beer you’ll drink and I honestly cannot decide which.

2003. Aroma of citrus, forests and yeast. Hazy, orange coloured with an initially huge, white head. Taste is moderate tart, woody, dusty, quite fruity (citric), somewhat sweet, some yeast. Balance is perfect. Very refreshing and dry. Excellent brew.

2002. Hazy light orange with a small but steady white head. Aromas of lemon, grapefruit, hay, barnyard, leather, even a bit of mushroom. Tart, acid, slightly yeasty and musty flavour. Very dry.