Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru

Aroma of wet wool blanket brett, onion peels, sour oranges, vinegar, and acidity. Taste is lemon, sour oranges, high acidity, barnyardy/brett, and onion. Tart finish, but a surprisingly light finish which seems balanced?

bottle. pours a mostly clear pale gold straw color with pretty much no head. sharp citrus smell with lemon and grapefruit dominating, a bit of wood and a slight funky note. more of that sharp citrus in the taste, with again more lemon and grapefruit, and with some grass or straw, but also melded with a bit of honey and maybe a nutty malt note. good puckering tart finish, very dry and a bunch of sour. pretty much no carbonation, and a medium body, for a quenching feel in which bubbles play no part. i really dug the beer but for the absolute lack of carbonation. i really felt like a good bubbliness would’ve helped the beer in the finish and overall. otherwise, quite a tasty beverage.

I immediately thought this was going to be a great one by the lovely sour vinous aroma, but this Lambic was just too hardcore for me. There is no carbonation whatsoever, so the mouthfeel is non existent, and there is no sweetness, just very tart and crisply complex flavours that make your face pucker. Not my favorite, but not a bad beer by any means.

Huge thanks to Degarth for breaking this bottle out. Tough to find style, and pretty pricey usually. Apple juice colored body, very still and clear with absolutely no head. Nose is amazing, funky cheese, pickle brine, barnyard, citrus fruits, sour apples, vinegar and extremely acidic. Tastes even better, mouth puckering sourness, unforgiving and unapologetic beer. More heavy vinegar and pickle notes, cheese, oak and citrus. Medium bodied, silky smooth and amazingly drinkable despite everything that’s going on here. Finish is as good as any other part of the beer, the woodiness really shines through and the sourness again just beats you over the head. This isn’t something that your brain tells you you should be enjoying smelling or tasting, but somehow Cantillon pulls it off. Masterful.

Shared a 75cl from Dranken Geers with Mes and Sim a little while back but this rate’s straight from a 37.5cl I picked up in Italy of all places. Ended the night before my trip with a bottle of Lou Pepe Geueze and proceeded to have no access to decent beer for a whole week. I managed to escape my overprotective relatives for a 2 hour walk and found a beer shop, I was so excited to see a lambic I just had to buy it. Pours a hazy gold with a thin whispy white head that takes some encouragement to form. Lovely aroma, I almost loved it more than the taste, a Blåbær moment indeed. Viinous and sour, with apricot, lemon, yeast, straw, vinegar and a subtle woody note. Flavour is much the same, quite soft and dry with a salty tartness in the back of your throat. Great stuff, well worth the prison break!

Pours out like clear apple juice, with no head, just a small white ring of foam around clinging to the glass. Aroma of horseblanket, lemon zest, and cheese all culminating together in that classic funk. Not nearly as complex as the gueuze, but nice. Tartness and sour up front, with a sweet, candy finish that lingers for a short while, moving into acetic acid. Earthy lemongrass and the imrpression of white reisling grapes is there, too. The carbonation is so soft, it’s almost not there. A nice salty flavour overlays the rest of the flavours. The acidity is intense, but not puckering. The finish is tart, sour and bone dry. A crisp, refreshing, funky beer.

Cantillon Friday Night Tasting Session, Providence RI
Pours a golden colour with a small white head. Nose is musty, barnyard funk and hints of sourness. Inital taste of a blanket of white wine that is fruity and acidic. Tartness arrays itself in the background with a mild funkiness. Finishing dry. Medium Body.

2004 bottle. A night that starts with Westy needs to end with something that can distinguish itself, and this seemed appropriate. Warm macro gold with no head other than extraneous large bubbles at the edge of the glass. Big sharp pungent lambic nose. Salty yogurt. Dry tannic oak, perhaps suggesting tea. A bit of fruity acetic acid, but not overwhelming. Carbonation is lacking, completely. Thin body, light and refreshing, like lemonade on crack. SO TART! Dry! Salty. big lactobacillus flavor. So tannic it almost tastes a bit like overbrewed tea. A bit of floral hops, surprisingly? Sharp with a good bit of acetic acid. A little sock-like. Lemon tart. Bracing. My first and hopefully not last unblended lambic.