Dogfish Head Festina Lente

Formerly brewed at Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Milton, Delaware USA

Honey orange body. Nose is lactic acid with peaches. Trigeminielly constrictive. Highly acidic flavour with peaches and peptic acids. Very dusty, walnut shells. Mouth was dead, with strong acidity. Great sour beer with a fresh aroma. --- On re rating, this is simply over the top sour.

Bottle. Flavour of peach. Golden in colour with a small head. Slightly sweet and very sour. Not very well balanced I’m sad to say. Fells kinda sharp.

22oz bottle-pours a minimal white head with copper color. Aroma is peach. Taste is peach, musty.

2003 bottling, Sampled July 2006
Pours virtually flat with a almost brilliantly clear, orange-tinged, copper color. There is a wan, ring of a head that cannot even be described as wispy; more a collection of large bubbles around the sides of the glass. Interesting the aroma still smells of apricots; a light fruity note reminiscent of fresh peaches and apricots. A light tart notes amplifies the fruit aspects of the aroma. The aroma is quite pleasant, there is perhaps a hint of oxidation adds some complexity to this brew. Surprisingly after all this time in the bottle, the peach and fruit notes are the most noticeable thing.

Definitely tart, even causes my mouth to pucker up just a touch. It is also quite dry, but still has a nice fruit character to it. I wouldn’t necessarily guess that the fruitiness was from peaches, but it certainly leans in that direction. Notes of tart plums and perhaps some green apple notes join the apricot and peach like notes. There is perhaps a touch of oxidation character as well, but it is fairly muted and seems to add a richness to this brew. The sourness, though omnipresent, is quite smooth and definitely more lactic than acetic. In fact I would be hard pressed to pick out any acetic acid character.

I am quite impressed how pleasant this is to drink, while it is certainly missing the funky complexity of a good Lambic, it certainly makes a good stab at a still aged Lambic straight from the barrel. It is unfortunate that this did not carbonate at all, it would have added some liveliness and would have made this that much more refreshing. Carbonation really would have kicked this beer up to another level, it is still quite enjoyable (admittedly, with all of the rumors about this beer, I was expecting it to be lacking in carbonation). I would love for Dogfish to brew this again, at least to get the carbonation right.

75 cl bottle. Golden colour with a weak head. Sour and fruity aroma. Very sour and acidity flavour. This beer is too sour for me.

Bottle. Hazy orange colour with a small white head. Light sour fruity aroma and a acid, sour, fruity taste. Medium body with a acid sour finish.

Hazy straw colour with a white head. Very tart aroma with sour hints of peaches and some barn. Super tart with hints of peaches and sour soothers.

Bottle. Hazy golden body with a thin white foamy head. Fruity aroma that carries hoppy/herbal notes. Sharp sour taste that leaves a long and strong aftertaste. Both aroma and taste lacks complexity. Average Lambic.