Hanssens Mead the Gueuze

Formerly brewed at Hanssens Artisanaal
Style: Mead
Dworp, Belgium

First of all, thank you to the raters before me, so that I avoided disaster opening this bottle. Deep golden with a head that quickly reduced from rather big to a tiny film. Aroma is a very unusual mix of citrus and honey, with the latter being rather strong. Flavours starts like the well-known geuze with grapefruit and good acidity. Honey takes over towards the finish and dominating the aftertaste, which is still rather dry. Fizzy. An exciting beer, and I am not only referring to the nerve-racking opening of the bottle!

(Bottle) Pours a lightly cloudy golden body with a moderate white head. Aroma of tart grapefruit, white grapes, and honey. This beer just teases upfront with the gueuze-like sourness and earthiness, then finishes with a funky honey flavor that just does not balance out.

2002 Bottle! Aroma is sour, fruity, barnyard, wet blanket, light hazy yellow, tiniest of white heads. Flavour is very fruity, sour/sweet, slight funkiness. Acidic and sweet, liked the mouthfeel. Quite unique! Thank You mds.

Bottle shared with Ralph, HogTownHarry, blankboy, DougShoemaker & mds - courtesy of mds. 2002 vintage. Hazy gold with no head. Funky aroma with yeast and sour lemon drops. Flavour isn’t as tart as expected from the flavour, but is still quite dry with some nice lemon & honey notes. Quite a unique beer - can’t understand why it’s listed here as an "ale", though.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, Ralph, DougShoemaker & mds -- courtesy of mds. Vintage 2002. Categorized as "An Ale"? Huh? Pours a murky dark yellow with sediment and a small white head. Nice aroma of citrus and sourness. Flavour is tart with some sweet honey, fruit and sourness. Interesting but in the end I found it only so-so.

bottle. 2002. cloudy golden-orange with a small white head. the aroma is phenomenal - lots of wheat, funk, lemon, bread, very similar to their regular gueuze with no honey detected. the flavour starts out tart and gueuzy but the mead comes in to play here and smooths it out and cuts the acidity. flavourful and complex though I still prefer the regular!

Bottle (750ml - 2002). Shared with R, blankboy, GregClow, DougShoemaker, and mds, courtesy of mds. Poured murky gold with a huge diminishing white foamy head. Aroma is tart, sour - the usual medley of tennis balls, sweaty wool, hessian; lovely - like a fruit-infused sour champagne. Taste is surprisingly flat and not sour - almost honey-sweet, with fruit syrup and surprisingly muted gueuze character. Mouthfeel is almost cloying, with a bitter finish. Still very nice, but the taste was almost a let-down.

Bottle. Gusher - cork popped off as wire cage was loosened. Golden beer with a big foamy off-white head. Tart aroma of green apples and some honey sweetness. Huge carbonation - had to let it settle a bit. Tart flavor - lemon and green apple with a bit of sweetness. Some lemon lingering. Nicer when carbonation is a bit less.