Belle-Vue Sélection Lambic

Formerly brewed at Belle-Vue (InBev)
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium

Horseblanket is dominant with herbal, minty notes in the aroma that evokes a musty cellar. Opaque yellow-tan with low white head that dim to ring. Acidic fruits - peach, pear, apricot, apple flavours with a strong barnyard character and some surprising herbal notes in the aftertaste. Medium body with low carbonation seems perhaps a bit tired. Bottle (1992 vintage) sampled at RBSG’05.

RBSG2005. Bouteille vintage 1992. Couleur jaune, apparence nuageuse et pleinement trouble. Évidemment pas de mousse. Intense acidité citronnée, vieille cave très humide et poussiéreuse. Tartrique, sûre et acidité toujours très prononcée en bouche, début de madérisation et aussi très poussiéreuse. Les signes d’âge sont assez évidents, certainement un vrai plaisir à essayer. Merci Martin!

1992 Bottle! Aroma of fermenting fruit and some of those fine barnyard notes. Cloudy yellow, tiniest head. Flavour is funky fruit, wet blanket and musty basement. Acidic, tart, Fantastic! Thanks so much to MartinT for contributing this to the RBSG!

Sample from 750 ml bottle (1992) at RBSG Montreal. Light hazy gold with touches of visible yeast-flecks, fairly still with thin fizzy quick-dissipating foam...intense peppery-sour, woody nose offers hints of lemon, vanilla, baked apples, a surprising amount of malt, and typical barnyardy pleasures...on the tongue, sourness is moderate and controlled by light wheaty malt at the front but intensifies dramatically as you swirl it on your delighted tongue, becoming hugely peppery and acidic on the finish, with cobwebby ancient dry yeasts completing the sour lemony goodness...perhaps not the masterpiece-to-end-all-masterpieces that I’d hoped for, but a treasure nonetheless and probably worthy of the hype...now I just need a larger sample, somehow!

(1992 bottle; enormous thanks Joris!!!):

Predatory sourness nesting atop the funky lemon infusion...A dirty dominion sends out its dry minions in millions...A laser with acute flavor propagation skills, illuminating and painting the palate...

A 1999 bottle was as enthralling believe it or not, intense mustiness, fat oranges, very aromatic, proud developing tartness, and nearly balancing fruity sweetness...Carbonation was somewhat of a deception, appearing almost tired, but the organization of flavors, complexity, and intensity scream authenticity...Same superb scores...

Cloudy dark orange colored with a disappearing head. Full and tart aroma dominated by grapefruit with tones of wild fermentation. Sharp and fresh and very nice. Very sharp and full flavor with some woody hints. Ultra dry and quite extreme, more than most other gueuzes I have tried. Thanks a lot Madsberg for sharing this fine and rare beer!

2/20/05. Poured out of 750 mL bottle, sample at Dr. Bill’s Backroom Tasting of the Toronado Barleywine Fest ’05 in San Francisco, CA 2/20/05. 1999 Vintage. Clear golden, pristine in color. Nice, tight sandy lacing. Almost no head. Aroma has a touch of nailpolish remover and a crisp tartnes with a dry pineapple funk. Barnyardy and crisply acidic. Amazing, explosively tart flavor, almost bilious and crisply fruity. Oily texture with silly dry puckery crisp finish. Soft on the back end with a black pepper and almost chili taste. Very distinct and impressive, but I do prefer other funkier, mustier geuzes. I didn’t even think this was a geuze-- I thought it was an unblended lambic with flavors closer to a wood-aged flemish sour (not unlike La Folie). Still damn impressive and explosive in its own right. I’d love to try a 10- or 20-year-old bottle of this.

Bottled. Cloudy orange. Aroma of barnyard and lemon juice. Very acidic with clean, rounded mouthfeel. There’s sweet malt beneath the powerful acidity. Very flavourful, but not as complex and lively in mouthfeel as the best gueuzes I’ve had.