Girardin Gueuze Black Label

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

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.

Ah, heavenly gueuze, return sweetly to my lips. A shallow pour, elicits furtive and bright carbonation, gassing the most piquant and lively tones of musky grape skins, cob-webbed attic planks, long grassy warm days and a sweeping sharp bite of acidic splendor. Faint washed-rind cheese lactic blend with lightly soured apple juice and a passionfruit. Nice. In the glass, a lightly hazed orange-tinted gold, with a soft, soapy head of white. On the tongue, it’s alive with bold, bowling acidity, bright, clear and clean. Quiet tones of wheat sugars whisper through the veil of bold soured candies. Musty pig barns and scatterd straw elicit a note of farms and apples. Out among the earthy glow is a vibrant bowl of fresh wet cranberries, puckering the corners of my mouth. So, fresh and delicate. A wisp of flowery perfume fills the humours, percolating the dying hop dryness. Beautiful all around.