Cantillon Loerik

Formerly brewed at Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Brussels, Belgium

1998 Bottle: Pours yellow and fizzy. Smells of dry malt, some of the familiar sourness, lots of refined beautiful wild qualities. Taste was out of this world dry with a great tartness. Lots of the more astringent qualities found in newer Gueuzes have faded away. What’s left is one of the best Gueuzes I’ve ever had!

Incredible like everything Cantillon. Thanks to Badgerben for sharing this one. Bright orange color and cloudy. Yeasty, sour aroma with brett. Delicious, full bodied sour flavor. Incredibly smooth, and perhaps the thickest gueuze I have had, and very sour. Outstanding palate, full mouthfeel. Very sour aroma and flavor, I could smell this for a long time. I have to go with the same high score as Ben on this one.

oh my dear lord: Pours a cloudy pumpkin color with a thin ring of head. Nose is pure FUNK. Flavors are funky, brie, funky cheese, sour, just plain sexxy..I want to live in here..i want to shove this up my nose and just smell this all day. FUNK!

OSLO and Guerde’s Memorial Weekend Tasting, 5/23/08. 1998 Vintage. I’m going to give slight props to Ryan and the former Cellars in Minnetonka. They had a sale about 4 years ago that provoked me into buying a lot of good Belgians, and this Loerik was one of them. I believe it was the last one on the shelf. I am very glad to have been able to pick it up and save it for such an ocassion. Also, props to Joebrew for successfully extracting the soaked cork after I had ripped out 2/3 of it. On to the beer... Cloudy dark orange color with a medium head. Slightly lemony aroma, a little wheat, moderate sourness, oak and barnyard. Holy monkey, Batman... The taste was all that and somehow more. The citrusy lemon provided just enough tartness to play with the sourness, which had evolved into a very fine sour. Earthy malt, a little caramel, fresh all-grain bread... insanely smooth. Good lord. Best Lambic I’ve ever had.

A huge thanks to badgerben for this. A cloudy orange color with a hugely sour aroma. Almost overwhelmingly sour, the body was still smooth.

Orange color with no head. The smell is over the top funky ass cheese, palmolive soap and acid. This is awesome. Super thick funky ass cheese taste...I want to make a quesadilla with it. Wow. Mouth is dry as the sahara and a nice finish...I want a cask of this so I can just fill my house with the aroma.

Delicious. I am not even going to try and describe all of the flavors, because the overall effect, the gestalt of the beer, is that it is delicious. I want to drink more and more. Too bad I that there is no more available to me, and I couldn’t afford it if it was. A stunning beer. If you have not had this, you are missing something extraordinary.

The softer, drier Cantillon geueze. Apples, lemons, moss, damp laundry, and only a hint of horseblanket. The musty/sour flavor seems to be less assertive and concentrate at different areas in my mouth. Light and woody. One of my all-time favorites,