St. Louis Gueuze

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Ingelmunster, Belgium

375ml green corked bottle. Cork date 09-2003. Light amber colour, slight creamy head. Light grape, trace apple aromas. Cidery notes, subdued tartness. Some sugars.

(33cl bottle) Pours a large, foamy, white head and a lightly carbonated, orange amber body. Nose of sour cherries and moss. Very fizzy, sweet and bland. The Guinness of the Gueuze world.

Aroma of mixed fruit, grapes and hops, dark amber, small rocky white head. Taste is musty fruit, and ginger ale? Very light bodied, none of the usual characteristics like sour, tart, acidic, dry ... nothing! Dull.

Bottled. Dark golden colour. Medium, frothy head. Wheaty, sweet, yeasty aroma. Sweet, slightly tart, grapey, lemony and sugary taste. Too sweet, could almost be a faro.

Bottled, from Oud Arsenaal, Antwerpen. Deep gold, thin white head and moderate condition. Gentle funkiness in the nose, low fruitiness in the mouth with just a hint of acidity and low farmyard notes. Gently dry and bitter in the finish.

Reddish brown, white lasting head. Fresh aroma with some sourness. Moderately sour flavour with oak, vanilla and a touch of hops in the finish.

Bottle at Den Engel, Antwerp. Amber, no head, slightly sour aroma. Friendly Gueuze - not challenging at all. Gentle sourness, but also quite a big swig of sweetness. Easy to drink, not amazingly flavoursome, but OK.

Bottle brought back from Belgium. Rather sweet gueuze. But nowhere near as sweet as Lindemans, for instance, and without Lindeman’s raw, unrefined staleness. Reasonably bland and rather safe with only passing sourness and barely any dryness. I can’t help thinking that without the sourness & bone dry characteristics lambics just taste sickly and stale. It’s gueuze, but only in name.