What happened to Tom? Is he backing out of the challenge?
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Did this go down? If so, what were the results?
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It "sorta" went down. Pretty frustrating, actually, in that we somehow couldn’t FIND a couple of the more common geuzes-- Cantillon Classic, Boon Oude Geuze, and Boon Mariage Parfait-- that we thought would/should be a part of the tasting. So it was an incomplete experience, and we vowed to do it again within the next month or two with ALL of the beers we were looking for, even before getting halfway through the tasting (which was also "tainted" by somewhat of a distraction in Poker Night, although I personally gave ample time and attention to tasting and rating the beers-- which may be why I got knocked out first in the poker game! doh!).
So we *did* have a blind tasting of 6 geuzes last night, in this order:
Oud Beersel Oude Geuze (new black label)
Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze (from 2004)
St. Louis Fond Tradition Geuze (new-ish)
Girardin Oude Geuze (new-ish)
Hanssens Oude Geuze (new-ish)
Lindemans Cuvee Rene Geuze (2009)
A couple of other logistics of the tasting didn’t work out quite as planned (e.g. serving them 2-by-2, or then being able to taste them all side-by-side-by-side), but 7 of us tried all 6 beers one at a time, and a couple of people held onto their glasses so they could try a few of the beers with repeated samples. All standardized 5-ounce taster glassware, all sampled blind.
One guy nailed all 6 guesses of the identities of these beers.
Two guys (including myself) flip-flopped two of the beers, but otherwise got 4 out of the 6 guesses right.
The other two guys whose sheets I saw didn’t really do much guessing, probably because they weren’t quite as familiar with these beers in the first place. And another two of the participants didn’t really get beyond the first couple of beers with ratings OR any guesses, so they basically wimped out and should be banished from all future badass tastings.
We ended up getting pretty shitty notes with incomplete ratings numbers, so I can’t really post much of a CONSENSUS write-up here. But I’ve got my own notes, that I thought were pretty good. It’s also worth saying that the 5 ratings sheets that I compiled (in some form) all pretty much agreed that the Girardin and Hanssens were head-and-shoulders above the other 4 beers, and all had them rated as #1 and #2 or #2 and #1. Even a couple of the guys who didn’t guess the identities of those beers thought they were the two best.
I also thought it was actually interesting (and surprising) to note how DIFFERENT a lot of these beers were, when trying them one-after-another. It was amazing right off the bat, with the first two beers (and it continued all through the line-up), to see the BREADTH and VARIETY of flavors and aromas across the geuze spectrum. I thought it would be a lot more confusing and difficult to split hairs and identify differences between the beers. It was not.
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So here are some of my notes:
Oud Beersel had a strong metallic nose that faded a bit as it opened up (and this "opening up" might be a key difference between our experiences and those of the New Yorkers-- we did NOT wait 20 minutes on the first couple of bottles to let them "breathe" before sampling; we drank the first one right after opening, and then the second about 15 minutes later right after opening, and then opened the other 4 and let them "breathe" before drinking each of them at approximately 20-minute intervals thereafter). It was very effervescent with a great texture but relatively thin flavor, especially in the finish. (my score - 8/4/7/4/15 - 3.8)
Drie Fonteinen was fairly flat, but had a big funky component and huge flavor with lactic acid all over and a faint hint of metallic flavor that also faded a bit. I thought it tasted kind of muddled and stale, but somehow didn’t guess it was the old Drie Fonteinen. I mixed up this and the Lindemans (which is one of the beers I drink the least of). (my score - 7/3/6/3/14 - 3.3)
St. Louis was *extremely* similar to the old Pizza Port Le Woody (blonde), with a "daiquiri ice"-like flavor and subtly solventy/minty aroma, nicely fizzy and crisp texture (but with pretty light carbonation that was pretty nice for the beer). The only "problem" is that it was pretty mild and soft overall, to its detriment. But it was damn drinkable, and my memory of enjoying it is better than the score indicates. Just kind of outmatched in this context. (6/4/7/4/15 - 3.6)
Girardin was hugely funky, dry, and "dirty," with a bit of a "cloth" or musty element that really distinguished it from the others. Great carbonation, a bit on the higher side in apparency (but this is probably more due to the dryness than to the CO2 content). Great, long-lasting finish. My personal favorite. But then, I also thought it just jumped right out of the glass and screamed, "Girardin" when I first smelled and tasted it (and it screamed "Quality" as well). So I guess it’s still sort of impossible to eliminate ALL preconceptions about these beers (unless you were doing them DOUBLE-blind, like not even knowing what beers you MIGHT be tasting). (8/4/9/5/18 - 4.4)
Hanssen’s also jumped out and screamed its own identity, and it was also damn good. Big lactic flavor with some slight "stinky feet" funk and somewhat of a fishy flavor. A little undercarbonated for my preferences, but the flavor and finish was as complex as that of any of these beers. (8/3/9/5/17 - 4.2)
Lindemans (which I had guessed was Drie Fonteinen) was dry and super-lactic, with some slight metal and nice texture from the carbonation but a slightly thin body. There was lots of funk and a slight earthiness and peppery spice element, with a lot of woody barrel flavor to it that made it pretty notably different from most of the others. A little bit dulled, I thought, but pretty good still. Somewhat interesting to note that while my scores for the Oud Beersel were one point higher than the Lindemans, when I RANKED them at the end, I put the Lindemans higher than the Oud Beersel. All of the other rankings held to their ratings order. (7/4/7/4/15 - 3.7)
All-in-all, it was a great time, and I’m already looking forward to pulling together the beers and doing this thing in a more controlled, more complete, more thorough manner without the distraction of a card game or the unfortunate lack of some of the key geuzes of the world.
I think we can easily do 10 beers, if we add Cantillon Classic Geuze, Cantillon Lou Pepe Geuze, Boon Oude Geuze, and Boon Mariage Parfait Geuze. Maybe even more if we swing for other, obtainable beers like De Cam Oude Geuze or throw in ringers (which we all wished were in there) like Beatification or vintage geuzes or something slightly different from, say, Cantillon.
Good stuff.
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No but no one turned up on wed to do it. Mes is ill at the moment, but hopefully we can pull it together next week.
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And what happened to Gazza after making such a terribly inaccurate and unfriendly claim about Chris? Seems to me the brotherly thing to do would be to simply apologize. Bummer.
Oh, and thanks to those who have contributed to this great thread. I’m really enjoying it.
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Makes more sense to me. Thanks for posting
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What for, having an opinion?
Okay, I accept that the bottles were supposed to be approximately the same age to not give any an unfair prop, but the original comment did strike me as a bit strange.
I love lambic, so felt able to comment on what I saw as the original meaning, and am happy to apologise for getting the wrong end of the stick.
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’
You misinterpreted the original comment. If you had read the whole thread and taken that comment in the context of us trying to replicate as closely as possible the same tasting experience and parameters of the New York blind tasting, it would have made sense.
I did not imply a fundamental preference towards young geuze over an aged bottle (but in this case, after having tasted the beers, I’ll say that the "young" Girardin Black Label and Hanssen’s Oude Geuze were both far superior to the two bottles of 2004 Drie Fonteinen). I suppose it’s also worth pointing out that I usually prefer geuze at around 4-6 years of age, and not really super-old like 10+ years. I’ve had some that have held up beyond that 4-6-year window, but that’s when most of the aged bottles I’ve tried usually hit their "sweet spot" of funky depth and crisp acidity, while still retaining enough of their lovely carbonation.
But I won’t berate you online or pretend you "don’t grasp the whole lambic thing" if you have other preferences.
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