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his beer has caused quite a stir and it looks like one of th finest beers ever made in my eyes. However i do have a question about it. What makes this a Lambic - Gueuze?
Its a mix of ales which have had particular yeast strains added to them to make beers which are sour, however there doesnt seem to be any spontanious fermentation goign on in it since its not left to the outside elements and has had particular yeast strains added to it. If im wrong here then fair do’s, but just wondering if someone can clear this up for me, otherwise i dont see why the russian river beers are not called Lambic - Unblended.
chin chin
Tom
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Just had a sample the other night at the Brickskeller, it is certainly worth the hype.
My personal view on styles is that the only thing that matters is what is in the glass, not went into making the beer. In this case the closest thing the beer in the glass tasted like to me was Drie Fonteinen Geuze.
I think many of the Russian River beers have too much malt/wood character and not enough sourness to group with traditional Lambics. Although none of these brewers are brewing to a style, so any category we put them in is just arbitrary labeling.
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Tom, spontaneous fermentation should not apply only to beer which is open fermented by ambient yeast. SF can occur just as well during controlled introduction of wild yeast.
Isabelle Proximus is a blend of multiple, different barrels of SF lambic-style beer. While it is not the traditional definition of gueuze because it does not blend young with old, it is also not the traditional definition of unblended, which is typically a single vintage of multiple barrels of essentially the same beer. Isabelle Proximus would be a single vintage of multiple barrels of somewhat different beer. I’m sure there are people more familiar with the brewing and blending that can weigh in, and I believe most of this was covered in a previous thread.
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How is it somewhat different beer?
My understanding is that those 18 barrels were *literally* all filled with the exact same batch of beer, meaning any differences from one to the next were differences imparted by the barrel itself, which is basically what I understand to be the case with "unblended" lambic as well. If anyone has any more information to refute any of this, I’d be happy to hear it.
Not that it’s a *big* difference, but I think someone suggested in that previous thread that the best category for this beer might be "Lambic - Unblended," which sounds about right to me, if everything I just said is true.
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By the way, are there other examples of Unblended Lambic that are carbonated to the level that a Gueuze might be (or that Isabelle Proximus is)? That’s a big component of this beer, and a big component of the best gueuzes I’ve had, so maybe that’s a dividing line between this and the unblendeds of the world.
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Ah, then I either heard wrong or just mis-heard. I was under the impression that they used different barrels and/or different yeast strains.
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I might have misheard or misunderstood. I don’t know. I think some of the barrels certainly had different residual wild yeasts that were brought in with the barrels, and certain barrels were even "christened" with other beers, like I thought I had heard that some of the Dogfish Head barrels had multiple bottles of Festina Lente dumped into them to give some of that wild yeast they would need-- which may get to the bottom of what you’re talking about. I suppose in that case that this might be best left as a geuze.
Like I said, it’s not a big difference, but perhaps if we get an official confirmation of any of this or a "company line" on why the beer is classified a certain way on RateBeer, that information could be entered into the commercial description, so we don’t keep having the same conversation over and over again.
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This particular beer is defintely blended. That’s the whole idea behind it. 
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I would like to hear from the brewers just how different each barrel was in color, smell and taste, but damn me for not asking this on Tuesday when they all (minus vinnie) were together at the Brickskellar.
I think most of them will be at Savor DC so maybe I can get a question in then.
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Right, but unblended lambic, other than stuff offered straight from the cask, is also blended, just across one vintage. Unblended in the style definition just means there is no mix of jong and oude lambic to make gueuze.
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Right on! Either way, I’d like the chance to give it a go. When is Savor DC?
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