3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze

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

From a 375mL Bottle, January 22, 2004. Pours a murky, orangish gold color with a thin layer of whitish head. Woody aromas of tart peach pits, mango skins, and green crabapple flesh that creates a tart, fruity bouquet. A nice leathery, cidery funk adds some welcome complexity. Light bodied, champagne-like effervescent mouthfeel. So simply in composition, yet so complex in flavor. Sour, acidic flavors of crababble skins skitter across the tongue initially, followed by some pithy lime rind and more leather. Final smack of a fine stilton cheese melted over baked pears.

750 ml bottle from Sam’s in Chicago, bottled February 28, 2004. By far the most attractive Gueuze I’ve encountered - hazy golden amber colour with a full lasting creamy, fizzy, and pillowy off-white head. Lemon, tart grapefruit, fruity, and lightly floral aroma to go with musty, earthy, yeasty, and cheesy funk with some barnyard notes. Lemon and grapefruit tartness lead the flavours, with a pithy grapefruit bitterness to balance the tartness and an underlying yeasty and soft cheese flavour bringing in additional complexity. Lingering tartness and yeasty and pithy bitterness to finish. Light bodied, bone dry, amazingly refreshing. I could drink this all day. A little unsure at first, this one blossomed into perhaps the best lambic I’ve had. Just delicious. Great choice for the last beer of 2006 and first of 2007.

corked and caged 750 mL bottle, what a sour way to inaugurate 2007! bubblegum yeast billow out of the bottle before i even poured it, and smelling the bottle brings along woody and acidic (lightly vinegary and ’light’ acids) aromas. highly carbonated, evidenced by the sharp foop of the cork as well as a head perpetually fed from several streams of bubbles that look like natural springs inside the glass. bright funky white fruits, with musty sour fermented flavors. the astringency provides balance to a stronger malt presence than i expected. despite the malt in the body, it’s a nice dry finish that leaves plenty of sour behind. an expensive treat, worth it once in a while!

Another finder at holidays. Hazy gold pour with a full white foamy head. The ripened fruits are alive. Especially the apples and pears and barnyard aromatics. Blended sours are amazing. Considered against the pedestrian gueuzes I have had before. This baby is the real deal! Blended beautifully with a nice sweet sour dry finish.

Poured a slightly hazy golden, darker than I’d expected, with a white fluffy head. Aroma is quite strong, unripe grapes, acid, brett and a plethora of both ripe and unripe lunchbox fruits. Dry lively mouthful, with some heavy sour notes and a wonderful balance. Flavour was fairly malty for a gueuze, with wonderful sour apple and citrus, as well a good deal of brettyness. The finish as you would expect is long dry and sour.. So enjoyable and balanced. A real treat.

Extremely dry, sour and fruity. Light straw color with yesty notes. Not for the faint hearted! A classic geuze, very well made.

1999 vintage. Shared at the RateBeer gathering at the Captain Lawrence Brewery. Poured a hazy golden with a large fizzy white head. Aroma is funk, acidic citrus. Flavor is dry toffee and citric acidity with a yeasty funkiness, pretty much what I’ve come to expect. Still not my favorite style, but good.

Love the good gueze and this is one of them. Dry and sour with a nice oaky wood presence. Acidity is bang on and the citric level is just right.