Cantillon FouFoune

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Pours hazy peach color with some fizzy white bubbles on top that quickly disappear. Aroma is lovely and complex, very smooth. Peach (though I’m sure that is the apricots, I don’t know what an apricot smells like), oak, vanilla, some citrus (orange, lemon.) Taste, whoa. Whoa. This is so peachy, and sooo so sour, I can feel my cheeks puckering relentlessly way in the back of my mouth. This is pretty acidic, I think I can already feel my stomach churning a little bit and I definitely feel it in my chest. But still... I absolutely love this.

750ml. 21Aug06. Pours a hazy dull orange/peach color with a lot of bubbles when I pour but has zero retention. No head to speak of after a minute and not a bubble in sight. Aroma shows significant funkiness. Normal Cantillon critters, Gueuze-like. Cider, urinal, hay and barnyard, musty cherries, lemonade. Some fruitiness as well, citrusy. I think I get some Apricot or Peach when I smell this but it didn’t jump out at me if I wasn’t looking for it. At warmer temperatures a rubber band aroma develops, though not negative. This thing smells acidic. It’s certainly satiating my funk/sour craving. Flavor is huge apricot, really well integrated fruit flavor following and preceding intense sourness. Lip puckering tartness, though not overdone. Lemony, super acidic with a dry finish. This is quite impressive how sour this is yet how it still manages to have such a rounded and defined apricot taste. One of the more intense lambics I’ve ever had when it comes to sourness. I certainly can’t think of any sourer. This is another knockout from Cantillon.

A clear, glistening, golden-orange body is topped with a thin, wispy film with a bubbly, off-white rim. Sudsy micro-spots of lace show like constellations in the night sky. As soon as liquid hits glass, an explosion of sour fruits and barnyard funk dart for the nose. Intense lambic sourness attacks relentlessly, while scents of sun warmed apricot skins and acidic apple cider vinegar fight through the lingering, cloudy, farmhouse funk. The first sip comes with a cringe inducing, mouth puckering assault. This stuff is heavy duty sour.....sucking on a lemon sour......but if you can handle it, you are rewarded with luscious, juicy apricot, nectarine and green apple goodness. The light carbonation and classic lambic body are perfect, as any fizziness would surely intensify the acidic punch beyond tolerable levels. This is a fantastic beer, but make sure you are well versed in sours before you go anywhere near this bad boy. You have to crawl before you can sprint.

(bottle, thanks Badgerben!) Pours a fairly still yellow. The aroma is all over the board, scents of freshly cut avocado, garlic, dried apricot, and the characteristic Cantillon barnyard funk. The taste was too sour and abrasive for me. There is huge mineral, vinegar, and lemon components that dominate over the subtle undertone of apricot. The flavor finishes with lingering sourness. This is definitely the most sour beer I’ve tried.

Hazy yellow with a diminishing head. Citric and sour aroma of vinegar. The flavour begins nice - with notes of lemon and fruits - not sure if it’s apricot. Then the Cantillon effect kicks in going into harsh grape like acid and sourness. The throat burns and the stomach turns. Extreme. (A S.1, E. 2)

2003 Vintage; Tasted September 7, 2008. Cloudy yellow color with a thin head. Aroma of dry wheat, honey and dried apricots. The dried apricots really come out in the flavor. Plenty of orange blossom honey. Quite sour, though not necessarily tart. A little peach towards the finish.

Poured from a 750 ml bottle, vintage 2003. Thanks Ben! A dusty dandelion yellow, soft and luminous. Sweet-tart apricot skin aroma with an intimidating array of wild oddities beneath; banana pepper skins, pickled ginger and garlic cloves, pineapple rinds; amidst the characteristic dryness of mineral yeasts, there’s a pillow-soft goat cheese tang for it all to swim and settle in.

Flavor is a raging swell of sour acidity, with a lacquer of fruit, honey, and flowers that lends a needed delicacy to the middle, to settle the violence of the acetic acids for a moment; still, the barren wood acidity and its wild heat that tends to dominate many of these not-yet-very-old Cantillons remains on furious display here; huge amounts of hot lemon juice, champagne vinegar, and pissy white wine. Altogether one of the sourest experiences yet, and certainly harrowing, and stunning.

Oily, medium body; softly carbonated; adhesive, vinegar-cured peppers and general raw sourness in a very long finish. A swift kick in the ass and sometimes the throat; sometimes an epiphany and sometimes an attack.

Bottled 2006 is stamped on cork. Hazy orange amber with a slim head. Huge barnyard piss, apricot flesh and its woody pit aromas. Big ass funky sourness everywhere, with apricot, woody peach pits, and barnyard funk acidity. A very nice funky fruit Lambic.