Girardin Oude Lambik

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

hazy amber coloured beer with no carbonation and no head. Sour fruity aroma with some oak/wooden touches. Medium light sour palate. Finish is bitter herby, ferm and sour. Nice.

Clear amber coloured beer with no head and no carbonation. Sour aroma. Full little sour palate. Finish is little sour and herby ending sweeter. Nice one.

I’d the luck to taste it in ’04 & ’05 version in session. The first were really acetic but still nice, woody, fruity. The younger more complex, with strong cellar notes, such as those of a well crafted "salame", citric and barnyardy along with that fantastic fruitiness. Both lovely and quenching.

(3/1/08) Draught sample at Zythos Bier Festival 2008 in Sint Niklaas. Clear golden with no head. Very nice barnyard aroma. Sour flavor with wood and citrus. Good rounded mouthfeel.

Draught at ZBF08. Good sourness and cellar notes in aroma and flavour. Cloudy amber colour. Good flavour, some CO2.

ZBF 08. Pours a clear dark golden color with a ring of offwhite lace on top. The aroma is sour, cheesy and musty. The flavor is intense on the sourness with some cheese flavor and a musty presence. The body is light to medium with an oily texture and gentle carbonation. Since I love both Black label and White label gueuzes, I thought that sampling the unblended lambic would be awesome, it’s not the case, but it’s still very good and I’m very happy to have tasted it at the festival.

750 ml bottle shared by Armand at Tria and a 10 liter box shared by Puzzl about 15 months apart. Pours flat and looks exactly like the jonge lambic- nice clear beautiful tawny, biscuity and similar appearance to a nice scotch or whiskey. Aroma is a bit more woody, and more funky- but still has an off sweetness- ligth acidity, with some garbage and just off smells- boxed version is cleaned up a bit but has more acetaldehyde and solventy acetone notes, green apple, light sugary sweetness and hints of both dms and diacetyl. Flavor is a bit bland- some spongy cork, dusty oak and wood, some weird off funk, off metallic astringency and just not pleasant. Finish isnt as smooth or even as acidic as the jonge lambic- how the hell does that work? Box was better than the bottle- being a bit more complex, not as thin or watery, still tons of acetaldehyde and strange wild acids that may mellow in time- a bit more horsey and funky- may just be a slightly better batch this time- but overall quite similar to what I remmeber in the bottle when Armand shared some with us. This bottle was the only thing I couldn’t finish along with the lindemans kriek we had that night at Tria. The Cantillon 1900 absolutely destroys this beer, but I think there must have been something off- must try again in amsterdam, and luckily I have a nice 1 literbottle of this from Bierkoning! Will try agian soon and re-rate. Box was much better than bottle, and I was able to drink about 5 glasses of the boxed example that we had.

[Tria Fermentation School] Poured a still, clear, dark amber color, that left no head or lace on the glass. Aroma of sherry, light wood, floral, dusty and horsey, with some brett beginning to show through. The flavor was more well rounded, with the sourness taking a bit of a back seat, and letting the tart grapes, vanilla, perfume, lemon peel, fig and pine show through.