Cantillon Cuvée des Champions

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Brussels, Belgium

On tap @ Brouwer’s. What is incredible about this gueze is it’s light and airy champagne feel. The flavor is all there, with less acid intake! Highly enjoyable experience, would love to taste what happens with some age in a bottle.

25 oz bottle, bottled in 2004, via hopdog. First pour is a crystal clear dark gold body with a one inch fizzy white head that faded fairly quickly to a wispy partial covering. Light visible carbonation. The nose is funky and cheesy with some sweaty feet and musty damp cellar. There’s a really interesting wet leather scent in there too. A hint of some acidity, some oaky notes, and citrus rinds. First taste is bracingly tart and acidic with lots of musty cellar and funkiness on the finish. It’s pretty one dimensional at first, all I get is lots of sourness, but everything really blooms on the finish. There’s some crusty bread maltiness and a tiny bit of powdery sugary sweetness. Not so sure I really get a whole lot of hoppiness. Mouthfeel is tight and crisp up front with a little more of a softer nuanced finish. Perfect slightly fizzy pinpoint carbonation. A wonderful Gueuze to be sure. It’s really amazing to me that this beer can be so wonderful and still be roughly in the 80th percentile for the style. There’s really alot of depth in the style.

From the Sour ALe Fest this pale yellow colour beer has a small white head. Tart and fruity aroma with a yeasty touch. Malty flavour with a light sourness and a spicy note. Great stuff.

6 oz draft at Brouwers Cafe Sour Fest in Seattle, Washington. Pour is hazy orange golden with not much off white head. Aroma of musty sour yeastiness, some citrus fruit - apple and pear. Taste of bright sourness, grapefruit, musty earthy yeastiness. Nicely bright and refreshing. Finish is bone dry, very champagne like. Beautiful sour.

Bottle at Paul’s Hoboken Gathering: Hazy yellow with a white creamy head.Very complex nose of sour lactic funk, lemon-rind, some leather and other unidentifiable stuff. Fluffy crisp body. Very tart, borderline sour with some leather and sour fruit pit, tart grape-like fruity undertones and a very mild earthiness underneath everything. Bone-dry finish. Complex and outstanding.

On tap at Brasserie Beck. ($14 a glass...envious of the folks getting it for $8 in CA). This is stellar: aroma is funky lambic sourness, but also lots of grassy dry-hop aroma. Flavor is pears, citrus, but then lots of herbal hop funk, with sourness coming in towards the end. One of the best things I’ve had to drink in ages.

From a 750mL Bottle. Pours a transparent color of honey, topped with a thin head of wispy off-white. Moderately acidic nose, bringing out notes of mild vinegar, white grape skins, peach fruits, and hints of grapefruit. Beneath the fruit and brighter acid lies some funky oak dryness, peppery spice, and mild aged cheese. Light bodied, lightly carbonated mouthfeel with a bold acidity. Plenty sour, along with some more cheesy funk and peppery spice. A bright, fruity acidity dominates the flavor before leaving behind an exceptionally long, dry finish. Good, but not nearly as complex or deep as some of the other Cantillon goodies.

On-tap at Churchill’s. $6.50/8oz. Geezus. Pours cloudy orange/yellow with a thin, crisp white headhead, bits of lace. Smell is subdued, slightly funky and touich sour. Tastes like fruit and flowers and then barnyard funkiness. Sour throughout, the funk mellows on the finish and fades to plain ole sournicity. Medium body, vibrant carbonation.