Gueuze de Nivelles

Brewed by Brasserie du Brabant
Style: Belgian Ale
Genappe - Baisy-Thy, Belgium

75 cl bottle. Cloudy, peach golden with a small fine-bubbled head. Complex aroma of geuze-like citrus, yet also notes of hay and cellar. Flavour starts sweet, but grassy hoppiness and acidity keeps the balance. Dryish finish. Sparkling, but a bit watery. Not quite there as a geuze, but interesting attempt anyway.

Bottle, Brussels (but bought in Liege I think), May 2005. Head is initially small, fizzy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy medium yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly yeasty (barnyard), with notes of lemon peel and clove. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Light to medium body, velvety texture, lively/fizzy carbonation. A pleasant sourish and somewhat wild smelling beer. Wouldn’t call it a lambic based on my senses alone, but much like the sample of Allagash Interlude I had recently, it doesn’t really fit anywhere specific.

Bottled. Hazy dark golden coloured. Loads of minerals in the aroma Also quite some fruitiness and a touch of acidity and dustiness. You can definately taste the wild yeasts in the flavour as well. Farmyard notes. Dry and slightly sourish finish. Light to medium bodied. Quite good and interesting, but I would always choose a real geuze over this.

Hazy yellow-orange; fine & dense off-white head, receding leaving good lace. Brett-nose, lemony, citrus, even some leather & saddle-soap, rainwater. I let it sniff blind to another taster, and we agreed on "quite gueuze-like". Taste is more dry-phenolic than the typical Brett/lactic sourness one might expect. Quite spicey, citrussy, unripe plums, and a bit of cardboard. Has a rather quick finish, leaving only a vague acidity behing, and a bit of dry-out effect. Not very full-bodied, with not enough acids to fill in the gap. Quite dry indeed. Very good try at (re) mixing the top fermenting ale with spontaneous refermentation. The nose is quasi-authentic. I like this, as I do most du Brabant works.

Bottle in One Pint Pub, Helsinki. Extra points for them trying, but in reality this isn’t a gueuze (not a blended beer and not entirely spontaneously fermented) and it’s definitely not a Flemish Sour ale either!... A sweetish, milky, malty beer, quite plain with a few cobwebs and musty sacks in the taste but not that much... a bit of a let-down.

Sourish and quite woody nose. Hazy orange beer, small white head. Flavor of citrus and grape fruit, sourness.

Pours a hazy orange with almost no head. Aroma is a litle funky, and just a litle sour. Taste is is fruity, sweet, and just a tad funky

Pale orange colour with a very small head. Fruity and light sour aroma. Fruity flavor with a mild vinegar note.