Hanssens Mead the Gueuze

Formerly brewed at Hanssens Artisanaal
Style: Mead
Dworp, Belgium

Bottle from Malt & Vine. Nasty crusties where the cork meets the bottle. I’m thinking this has been around awhile. Cork hit the ceiling with a loud pop. Pours hazy honey color with a frothy off-white head that goes down in a strange process. Aroma is something like honey vinegar. Medium body with frothy carbonation. Flavor is medium sour, somewhat funky, but relatively smooth. Brett the way I understand gueuze should be. This stuff is deceptive. It drinks like there’s no tomorrow. Aroma is starting to smooth out. Not getting lots of honey here, but something like wood is coming out. Burps excellently. Finish is relatively clean. I’m finally beginning to get something like sweet, but it’s very subdued. Get this if you can.

Poured a clear orange. Nose is funk, sweet sugars, vinegar. Flavor was awful. a weird blend of sweet boozey mead mixed with earthy funky cheesy sour beer. Pretty tough to choke down.

This was terrible, like stank still water that mosquitoes have been brewing in. No honey flavor, and no gueuze flavor. Wierd. Bottle from Ryan Blanksi’s Sourfest- Hollywood, Florida.

Dark orange color with no head. Aroma is sweet with a hint of funk and citrus tartness. Flavor has some hay and lemon rind with some sweetness, honey and woody.

Amber pour. Aroma is sweetish, woody and a bit funky. Not really that good to be honest. Tasted woddy and weak. I just didn’t like the way the two mixed together. A bit of oxidation too. Weird.

Loud pop, honey aroma in the room. Tall head fills the glass quickly and fizzes away to a light covering quickly. Mostly wildflower aroma, some old fencepost too. Very still once settled, deep gold and swirled the last of the dregs and glopped in the slick sandy brown mucky leavings. Some of it floats to just below the surface like a protein chain in kombucha tea. Burst of gueuze up front, hard to get much character other than the oily lemon rind because the gritty floral honey sweetness is the core of the experience. Both worlds are present in the finish, unique and works very well.

light amber still pour. Dusty, dank, horse blanket aroma. Sweet up front with a blast of sour on the finish. Hints of honey comb oaky tannins, and straw

375ml bottle thanks to davinci!!! Pours a clear rich darker golden with basically no head. Aroma is strong and nostril stinging dusty funk, lightly sweet, smells like a gueuze. Flavor follows, mostly gueuze, funky barnyard, moderately sweet, the mead sweetness really shows towards the finish, very light bitterness. The honey lingers in a very soft and pleasant way with minimal sweetness. Medium bodied, lightly syrupy, almost no carbonation. It’s a very nice blend deserving a higher score.