Lancaster Old Sourpuss Gueuze

Formerly brewed at Lancaster Brewing Co.
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Lancaster, Pennsylvania USA

On tap at the 2004 Kennett Square BF. Poured a cloudy, hazy brown color with a small head. Aromas and tastes of sour, tart cherries. Nothing special.

Diminishing white head covers a murky copper hue. Medicinal and soapy nose has a heavy nail polish component and surprisingly so: mustard and soy sauce. The result is a rather salty “gueuze”, bready and caramelic with indeed some lactic hints, but definitely far from fully attenuated, quite mineral and leafy and with an off alcohol note.

The Lure:
A repugnant orange/brown gown harbors dissonant caramel and injurious varnish. Spurious marsh water dries up to furious funky earth. Tell me this is not true.

The Festivities:
Inarticulate brett and immaculate flatness join secular caramelization and spectacular oxidation. Stressed dryness and pressed paper nest in mineral jest. Dead earth mimicks the wanton burial of this "thing", sign that even the yeast knows it’s time to call it quits. As Eric eloquently proposed, this is "nasty shit".

Transcendence:
Diving for the bottom of a full trash can.

Thanks to Christian from Lancaster Brewing Company for bringing this to the Main Line Brew Fest, and thanks to Woody Chandler for sharing his growler with me. Turbid brown pour, with sour gueuzy aroma. Solid fruit, malt, and that sour finish. Nice complexity. This one is a relic. A good relic.

Strong phenols in the fruity aroma with plenty of cardboardlike oxidation and something like soy sauce. Opaque, muddy copper coloured body with thin white fully diminishing head. Salty caramel and bready malts with unclean phenols and unpleasant lactic, yogurty sourness. Watery and sugary with very little carbonation. No thanks - this one was the Breughel of the festival for me. Judging by that huge standard deviation on the scores it’s a shame they didn’t bring their best to the festival. Sampled at Kennett Square Brewfest 2005.

Poured a hazy brown color with a tan head. Aroma was musty, barnyard, rather sweet and not tart like most attempts at lambics. Taste was dry cherry, astringent, lightly tart, but overall sour and watery. The brewers are calling this a gueuze, but it seems like they are trying to profit from a beer gone sour. And after talking to many people about this, including a brewer who was there 6 years ago, this is, in fact beer that was lost, gone sour, and now attempting to be marketed. Nasty shit.

On draught 10/8/2005 at Kennett. Wow, well one sample of this was as much as I could stand to drink, so that will certainly have to suffice. Pours a murky, cherry-amber-rust color. Not sure why they decided to add darker malts to this. No head, no bubbles, terribly unappealing. Smells of rust, b vitamins, cardboard. Just intensely oxidized. Flavor is right there with the aroma, undrinkable. Huge amounts of bready, astringent cardboard oxidation. Metallic and putrid on the finish. Watery, flat, loose mouthfeel. Just a mockery that the brewers would have brought this. Unless they were trying to show off how bad a beer they could make. Wouldnt have known what to think of this in a blind taste test. Not identifiable as any real style. Just pure oxidation.

Draught @ Brewery: Strong lemon/lime sour smell. A hint of malts too. Poured a cloudy/hazy/murky amber/ruby color. Spare, diminishing head. Spare lacing. Tasted like apple, cherry, and sour milk. Full body. Oily texture. Average carbination. Bitter finish. Harshly acidic and bitter. Sour Sour Sour. I did not like it, but it seemed like it was good for the style.