Hanssens Mead the Gueuze

Formerly brewed at Hanssens Artisanaal
Style: Mead
Dworp, Belgium

Bottle at Rich O’s Publick House during RBSG Road Trip 2007. Big bubbly white head dissipates in seconds, cloudy orange/gold body. Wow, what a nose! Funky sour brett over sweet honey. Lots of carbonation over a light body. The mead honey sweetness centers itself on the tongue, then the gueuze blows it away with a dry, tart sourness. Champagne texture and flavors dominate the sides of the tongue, as it finishes dry and bubbly crisp. Wow! Loved this, but clearly not for everyone.

bottle - The cork on my bottle looked much as GarrettB described, so it wasn’t just his. Odd. It poured yellow with no head, few carbonation bubbles visible, and a funky aroma. The flavor has the expected lambic funk with a mildly sweet undercurrent. The lambic aspects clearly dominate this beer. I too would classify it as a gueuze rather than a mead. It seems a touch watery even as it warms, but nevertheless the mead is blended well and the result is enjoyable.

Bottle at Rich O’s Publick House during RBSG Road Trip 2007. Cloudy orange body with a rapidly diminishing frothy white head. Very sweet honey aroma with a sour background. Sweet puckering sour fruit flavor with a light honey background. Fairly high carbonation with a fizzy mouthfeel. Kinda a gimmick brew, but certainly makes a tasty combination.

Typical hazy, murky straw color. Aroma is lambic funky, but the honey does seem to be able to hold it’s own in this cacophony of flavors. Carbonated beyond words. Interesting, but in a very good way.

My Mead The Geuze sat in my basement for a very long time – a hermit, finding solace, peace and rest in an uncrowded, uninhabited world. This might explain why the cork developed an olive green patina rot. When I released it from the cage the cork practically fell out of the bottle with only a quiet sigh. Something was terribly wrong. Still, everything smelled fine, and a cautious sip yielded no neurotoxin type symptoms, so I went ahead and finished it off. For obvious reasons there was absolutely no head. The beer was as still as a drying puddle in the Savannah, disturbed only by wind coming from the window. It was also very clear, colored like well filtered apple juice with a golden-brown hue, like the evening sun glancing off of polished copper in a chatoyant glow. The aroma is almost as still as the beer. Light, and timid, it is a mere wisp of fragrance with some apple, but it is mostly jejune. The taste is far from barren, ringing with sweet vinegar and a wood sourness, but still as unmoving as a corpse and as lively as a civil bureaucrat. Collectively the experience is shockingly simple, with the flavors and palate taking on a very zen like placidity that I hope is accounted for by the vitiated cork. This will definitely require a re-rate.

Slightly hazy apple juice color with no head at all. The nose is dominated by a sweet sharpness, dry horseblanket and maybe some straw. Really balanced by a light sweetness, maybe the honey? Not a lot of body or carbonation but not watery. Tart bittly so, but fresh and clean in a way with the horseblanket, as strange as that sounds. A long dry straw filled finish. a lingering tart aftertaste. Big lactic nose and some floweriness.

First off, I’m glad I read the warnings about the cork on this one. Pulled off the cage, grabbed a towel, put the towel over the cork and barely touched the cork, and it shot into the towel with a loud POP. This starts off smelling more like a white wine then a beer, after it sits for a while, some honey sweetness is noticeable. It pours a clear golden color with massive carbonation, it’s so carbonated you can hear the bubbles rushing up to their death. It has a thin white head of tightly packed bubbles. The taste is a very interesting one, high carbonation, an acidic/sour taste with the carbonation cleansing the palate. This is truly a unique drink. Now to see if I can hunt down another bottle to cellar.

Strong and sour. Golden color with dissipating head. Cherry lozenge taste..? Very sour and strong and sweet (way too sweet). Thick body, syrupy.