Girardin 1882 Black Label Gueuze

1882 Black Label Gueuze is a great example of the style. Once it was one of my favorite beers. 

BeerAdvocote

Tasting notes 

05 December 2024

The flavor again is more bitter and less tart than I want. It has too much lemon zest and too little lemon cider. The taste did grow on me as I drank the bottle. Maybe my taste buds have changed.

Rating = 6 glasses

2311: Plenty of tart but more bitterness than I remember - too much lemon rind. Left rating unchanged but thought about reduction.

1308: A recent bottle led to a downgrade from 7 glasses. It is really good but not as tart as I wanted or remembered. 

1002: A bottle purchased 4 mn ago. See previous review. Cantillon may be better??

(3) A bottle purchased about 2 years ago. Tart, complex, funky. Less lemon than I remember. Almost quaffable. Still the best. 

(2) Lemon, vinegar, and apple cider. Each sip causes salivation. 

(1) Sour and tart but doesn't take away your breath. Sort of a fizzy lemon cider.

Rating: 6 glasses.

Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic

Brewer's notes

Assembly of Lambics of different ages.
Beer with a tangy and fruity taste, woody and delicate aromas, long finish on the palate.
Long-life beer with evolving taste.
Brasserie Cantillon Lambics are called “young” after one year of aging and reach full maturity after three years. Young beers contain the natural sugars necessary for second fermentation in the bottle. The three-year-old beers bring their bouquet and finesse.
Gueuze is the fruit of a complex blend of Lambics of different tastes and ages, preserved in oak barrels. The most important role of the brewer is taste. He will have to taste around ten Lambics from different barrels to finally select five or six. This is how Gueuze 100% Lambic is made, carrying the original character of the beers from Brasserie Cantillon. Each blending vat will give birth to a different Gueuze. The natural elements available to us do not allow us to manufacture a "standard" product.
Arranged horizontally in the cellar, the bottles will remain there for an average of one year to allow the transformation of sugars into carbon dioxide (second fermentation in bottles). The saturation of the beer occurs slowly and naturally. When Lambic becomes sparkling, it is called Gueuze.
In the 18th century, a Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon, discovered champagne by blending different non-sparkling white wines. A century later, a Brabant brewer mixed several Lambics and caused a second fermentation in the bottle. La Gueuze was born. Until the 19th century, the people of Brussels and Brabançons drank mainly two beers, Lambic and Faro. The appearance of the glass bottle and the contribution of Dom Pérignon will revolutionize the small world of Brussels brewers. Gueuze then became the symbol beer of Brussels.

BeerAdvocate

Tasting notes

December 06, 2024

A recent purchase from Corks and Kegs. Any apple flavor was subdued. Tart with a good dose of bitter lemon zest. It earned a small upgrade in the rating.

Rating = 6.5 glasses

March 8, 2024
The second bottle has about 1.5 more years in the cellar. Similar reaction as below - tart but I wanted more and the apple flavor is not my favorite. Something about Belgium yeasts may be at work. St. Bernardus Abt 12 has a similar note. Downgrading rating to 6 glasses.

Nov. 25, 2022

First of two bottles scored from Corks and Kegs a few months ago. More apple-cidery and less lemon-vinegary and tart than I remembered or wanted. 

Rating: It is still wonderfully complex and refreshing with enough je ne sais quois for 7 glasses but I am downgrading it to 6.5 glasses.

(0911): A bottle at SD21 in NYC. Nice and tart and complex. A tiche milder than I remembered. Girardin rules.

Rating: 7 glasses 

Click here for a previous review. 

Oude Gueuze

Beer: Oude Gueuze 

Brewer: Hanssens 

Style: Gueuze 

Tasting notes: 

(2108) Back to 6 glasses. 

(1005) Tart and refreshing. I wanted gulps, not sips. I wanted some more punch somehow. Downgraded to 5 glasses from 6. 

(0909) A wonderful gueuze. Tart and lemony w/ hints of pineapple. Upgraded from 4 glasses. Initially went to 5 but upgraded again the next morning. 

(0607) Lemon with tastes of apple cider, vinegar, pepper, and occasional hints of sugar. 

Rating: 6 glasses

Drie (3) Fonteinen Oude Geuze

A recent bottle did not impress me as much as before. Good, but not great. Complex and interesting but I wanted more tart.

Rating = 5 glasses (down from 6).

Here is the earlier review.

Drie (3) Fonteinen Oude Geuze

Oude Geuze is a fantastic beer. It is complex and tart but not puckering. The taste is difficult to describe. I taste lemons and oranges and wheat.

BeerAdvocate rating = Excellent, 300th best beer overall and 6th best Belgian Gueuze.

Rating = 6 glasses.

Boon Geuze Boon Black Label No. 3

"Oude Geuze Boon Black Label is an oude geuze first released by Boon in November 2015 to commemorate the brewery's 40th anniversary. A subsequent second batch was released in 2016 and a third batch was released in 2017. It is bottled in 750ml bottles and labeled as 7% ABV" (https://www.lambic.info/Oude_Geuze_Boon_Black_Label). 

Geuze Boon Black Label No. 3 is a wonderful beer but my recollection is fuzzy. I think the flavor features apple and hay with only hints of tartness.

Beer Advocate rating = 4.08 but the beer lacks enough review to be rated.

Rating = 5 glasses.

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René

0803: Nice, apple cider w/ lemon and vinegar. Good value for gueuze. 6 glasses

1304: More sour and less tart. A slight rancid metallic taste. Downgraded to 5 glasses and thought about 4 glasses.

Oude Geuze

Brewer: Drie Fonteine

Style: Gueze

Tasting notes: (1008) A 2 yr 7 mn old bottle. Tartness is muted by oak. Hints of apple and grapefruit. Complex and quaffable. (0803) Not as tart as Girardin. More apple and smokey oak. Complex and quaffable. Upgraded from 4. (0712) Grapefruit cider. Vineous and refreshing.

Top 100: 10 March 2007 but not 29 December 2005 or 14 August 2010.

Rating: 6 glasses

Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille

Beer: Oude Geuze Vieille

Brewer: Oud Beersel

Style: Gueuze

Tasting notes: (0905) An interesting verison of gueuze. Less tart and more sour and bitter than others. Sour rotten oranges, sugarless grapefruit, and a grapefruit sour/bitterness at finish when cold. The sour and bitter diminish as the beer warms and after the yeast is added.

Comments: The bitter flavor may be hops. My understanding is that gueuze uses aged hops to eliminate hop bitterness. However, the Oud Beersel website describes the beer as "traditional oude geuze with fruity nose and hoppy flavour."

Here is how the brewer describes the taste of the beer:

"The taste of the Oude Gueuze of Oud Beersel combines from way back a pleasant bitterness with a sour yet smooth character. The first mouthful refreshes the tongue and opens the way to the wondrous world of the spontaneous fermentation with its complex subtleties."

Rating: 3 glasses. May rate 4.

Mariage Parfait

Beer: Oude Gueze Boon Mariage Parfait

Brewer: Boon

Style: Gueuze

Tasting notes: A bottle best before 26 01 2005. Consumed 04 04 2009. Gulpably smooth and complex. Woodsy, orange zest at end, dry but not super tart like Girardin. I wanted to keep tasting to figure out the flavors. Went well w/ apples but not well w/ clementines or Fontina cheese.

Rating: Highly recommended

Gueuze

A great gueuze is a taste sensation. Common descriptors include: acidic, barnyard, dry, funky, lemony, sour, tart, vinegar, and vinous. It refreshes and wonderfully cleanses the palate.

Gueuze is a blend of young and old lambic beers. Lambic beers are spontaneously brewed in large open air vessels. This means that any critters in the air can affect the brewing process.The old lambic is often aged in wooden barrels. The aging takes some of the "edge" off of the beer. The brewmaster creates a consistent flavor by blending old and young lambics.

Gueuze has no hop bitterness. The hops used are aged to remove their bitterness. They are added as a preservative.

I highly recommend that everyone try a good gueuze. It blends the boundaries between beer and wine and is a unique taste experience. I recommend Cantillon, Girardin, and Boon.