Hanssens Cassis

Brewed by Hanssens Artisanaal
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Dworp, Belgium

Royal purple with not a single bubble seen for miles. Aroma of fresh fruit with must and dampness. Sour vinegary currant flavor but no acidity. Very nice example of a fruit lambic - would like to see this one blended.

Intense fruitiness on the nose. Medium plus acidity for a lambic. Pure fruit flavor is preserved along with the funky undertones, both distinct yet harmonious.

375 mL caged and corked bottle from Grape & Gourmet. Opens without any pop once the cork is removed. Pours reddish-purple with no head at all. Sour fruit, vinegar, and oak aroma. Very sour flavor with a faint sweetness on the finish. Noted tart berry, vinegar, wood, and earthy flavors. This is really quite nice and with a little more carbonation it could have been outstanding.

Pours from a 375ml bottle into a Cantillon tulip. Pours a very deep dark ruby/plum dark purple color that is completely opaque and still with only the faintest bubble or two of carbonation. Sweet fruity berry aroma with some earthy oak and funky barnyard horseblanket. These aromas blend together very well without any of them overpowering the other. The berries are more prominent than expected but the band aid funkiness are strong as well. Very vinous. Vinegary tart and extremely puckering mouthfeel that is surprisingly not very acidic. There is a good bit of vinous fruit up front that provides a pleasant sweetness that is immediately taken over by a very funky tart and sour dry puckering flavor. Nice earthy oaky tannis followed again by more sweetness from the currants. Its nice to see the fruit resurfacing after the funky sourness kicks in. All to often the sourness of these beers can kill the fruit presence. Not the case here however. This is a very refreshing well balanced drinkable fruit lambic.

Bottle at Ginger Man. Aroma quite funky with really pleasing old sock and horse blanket leading the way, and a tart cassis jelly note behind. Flavor was a bit of a disappointment however, with more juice-like, un-complex character from the cassis with decent lingering tartness but not much in the way of accompanying acidity or yeasty notes. Completely flat, I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be, but for me that just made the fruit notes more juice-like. A bit of a letdown.

Bottle: The aroma is incredibly funky. It contains notes of berries, dirty diapers, and sweaty feet...a little too funky for me with the dirty diaper. It pours a hazy reddish-orange with a minimal pinkish ring around the edges of the glass. The flavor starts with berries and sour grapes. The finish is moderately sour with some mild vinegar. It’s nowhere near as sour as the raspberry, but still pretty sour. Medium bodied with minimal carbonation and an almost flat mouthfeel.

12.7oz corked & caged bottle from grape & gourmet. pours a nice, light burgandy with hints of pink and absolutely zero head. aroma was honestly nauseating with ridiculous funk, sweat sock, herring, wet hay, and a touch of red berry. flavor was not much of an improvement with unpleasantly tart notes of black currant, raspberry, and green apple with loads of red vinegar and brett funk. palate was light bodied and completely flat. overall, one of the worst "beers" i have ever tasted. my first ever drainpour after 328 ratings, wow, this was terrible.

bottle big thanks to kan! pours murky red with no head. the nose is canned tuna!, vinegar, and currants. taste is extremely metallic, vinegar, and currants. this was pretty gross.