Cantillon Cuvée des Champions

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Brussels, Belgium

(750ml bottle) Cloudy hefe coloured. Strong tartedness with sour cranapple tones. I have a real tough time with gueuze... I definitely like the nose more than the flavour.

Lemon, leather, wood, cork, bamboo, lots of manure...driving through farm country. Tart, corky, apple skin notes, hints of leather. Good gueuze, fairly approachable.

Tried at Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation 27/05/06. Dull straw colour with a smoother taste than all the others tried, balanced, pear and apple in the taste then grapefruit.

Bottle from Spuyten Duyvil. Pours dark yellow with some lacing. Cannot see through the beer. Aroma is very present - high on fruity tartness and sourness but low on the burnt rubber. Taste is similar. Effervescent mouthfeel. Real dry. I got a real lively fruity feel but without the sweetness, which to me makes this gueze stand apart. 8/3/8/4/16

375mL bottle made for and drank at Le Bier Circus. Aroma is very lemony leather with barnyard and sweaty sock that has dried out (in a good way). Taste is pretty subdued for Cantillon, lemon with low acidity and a tart finish at the end. A lot more cloudier and murkier color than before.8/4/8/3/17.

CdC again but this was bottled on 02-2008 and the brewer broke it out at the brewery tour. Its an amazingly different beer than previous incarnations. Aroma hits you with HOPS and lots of strong Cantillon citrus. There is a bit of lactose or lightly spoiled dairy. Taste is lower on the acidity but a strong lemon kick with lots of tartness on the back end. Still plenty of hops and a lot of young lambic rubber in here. A super hoppy lambic, a first.8/4/8/4/17.

(As Cantillon Olutravintola Pikkulintu). Dark yellow color, little white head. Sourness, dryness, fine hops and mild apple in aroma. Medium bodied. Little bit of strange to find some hops here, but I think they fit here well. Dryness is strong with bitter fruits, aftertaste has hops with dry touch.

Bottle from Brandon (notalush) Thanks! So I was at the store, and I needed to spend 40 dollars to be eligible for this prize you win at the end of 16 weeks of spending 40 dollars or more once per week. This was the last week, so since I was there I picked up a wedge of maytag and it was about 7 bucks. Since I had good cheese, I decided I would drink a gueuze with it because I have yet to experience that pairing because the places to eat around here that have good cheese only serve shit ass beer like heineken and budweiser. Beer is brown with a thick white head. Smell is some hops, oak, lemons, and musty. Taste is fantastic, smooth, sour, lively, and wood. Reminds me of Girardin with a little less carbonation. A really good gueuze, and after having that cheese with this, I am not sure there is any better way to drink a lambic. This was the perfect pairing.

Pours a slightly orangish tan with a small head that fades and an active effervescents. Aroma is of sour peach, pear, slight sweet hay, slight berry. Flavor is of a nice full tartness but not so much as to make the eyes water. Lemon, sweet tarts (mix of sweet and chalkiness), pear, a sweet back bone to balance the sourness. Very nice balance of full tartness and sweetness.

750 ml bottle. Deep golden beer that pours perfectly clear. Light spritzy carbonation. Aroma is pure cantillon, leathery, barnyardy aroma with some light cologne. Very vineous nose with a light earthy character. Lighter acidity than is typical for Cantillon. Some pear/apricot fruitiness. In the mouth, the beer is crisp and bracing with soft lactic acidity, cologne and some earthy/spicy hop flavours as well. Much more restrained than most of their other offerings, but with less acidity the backing complexities are on display for all to see. Earthy dryness, perfumy hops with a great balance of acid, Brett and earthiness. Warming brings out even more peachy fruit and the malts are more prominent than in any other lambic I’ve had. First rate stuff. Cuvee de 89 Bottle shared with random American I met at the bar. Pale golden beer, creamy head. Incredible aroma… classical Cantillon sourness, grapefruit/lemon and heavy funkiness and acidity. Apricot and peach with some strong lemony citrus notes. Fruity and fresh. The hops appear to have diminished somewhat, but they do play off the typical fruitiness that Cantillon has. Assertive sourness. 9 4 8 4 17