Girardin Gueuze Black Label

Brewed by Brouwerij Girardin
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Sint Ulriks-Kapelle, Belgium

2004 Vintage 11.2 oz bottle into a Tumbler. Pours a slightly hazed orangish color with the ever so slight red hinted hue. Very thin, but excellent retentive white head. Very straight forward yeast and sour and old fruits aroma. A lot of the same in the flavor: very forward sour apples, cherries, and heavy citrus notes. High yeast flavor backing the whole tart mouthfeel that coats the whole palate very thickly. Not as tart as you would expect from a gueze, but still brings in the exceptional classic gueze flavor. Quite the exceptional and balanced gueze. Been looking forward to this one for a while, and it does not disappoint at all!! Recommend aging for at least 8 - 10 years!!

Long saught after, as Oakes has hailed this as one of the Great Beers for many years. Finally located a bottle at Toronado. Did not disappoint. As others have said, it’s a massively complex, compelling, challenging, yet emminently drinkable beer. Would love to have a case of this!

(375 ml bottle via trade with <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=3 target=blank>IrishBoy, thanks Richard!) Wow this was sour...Poured hazy slightly pinkish light orange with a very tall foamy effervescent whitish head. Aroma was yeast and sour cherry. Mouthfeel bubbly, effervescent, dryish. Scant lacing. Taste is very tart, sour and cherry-and-apple. A bit of funk/cheese in there as well. Another beer that, where I can appreciate its quality, just have to say I didn’t enjoy the flavor.

A nice golden like color with a moderate white head. A dry tart aromatic nose. Taste is sour fruit reminiscent of apples and citrus.Tart and slightly effervescent. A very good beer for california and nice days!

Pours a gorgeous golden orange with a lacey white head. Smells, of acidity, and oranges. A little funk in there too. Tastes of sour tannins, lemons, other citrus fruits. Not over the top acidic, but enough to keep you on your toes. Goes down real easy though. Very refreshing, I could drink this beer all the time.

pours a suprisingly bright amber/gold with a slightly off-white head with superb retention. nose leans towards the dry and grassy side, with some fairly muted acidity. flavor is a bright combination of citric acidity and crisp funk. very quenching and drinkable.

Rerate: 8-16-09
Hazy foxy orange. Pressurized and carbonated but not as effervescent as last bottle I had. Very sharp aroma - aged white cheddar, wheat, barnyard, granny smith. Moderately aggressive sourness, soft lactic acidity, juicy fruit presence - white grapefruit, grapefruit skin oils, orange peel. Slight woody bitterness. Medium carbonation levels in the mouth, perfect really. More or less as delicious as I remember it.

Orig. rating: 3-16-07
Ochre orange body, hazy. Very lively carbonation, even and lasting head. Complex aroma, sour apples, cheese, barnyard, leather. Extremely delicious. Very dry, sour, green apples, lemon, white grapefruit, woody, earthy, cidery. MF- perfect. Mouthwatering and juicy. Perfectly carbonated without being overly spritzy. Shit. It’s all gone now. Do these come in bigger bottles? What else can I really say about this? If you love lambics then you already know this is fabulous stuff. I need to get some more.

Well here it is. I’m finally tasting a gueuze. Aroma is very strong, hayloft, musty, barnyard type stuff. I can tell it’s gonna be dry as hell just from the aroma. No sweetness to speak of. Flavor is tart and acidic. Dry, light, sharp and assertive, this is not something I would have liked a couple years ago. As it is, I think it’s pretty good. I don’t think this is a beer I could drink all night, even with it’s low ABV. It’s simply too sour for me to do that. But I do like it. I’d like to have a few more bottles of it before I rate it, but I dunno when that’ll be, so this is what I got for ya. I certainly will revisit.