3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze

Brewed By: 3 Fonteinen in Beersel, Belgium  

Purchased: 750ml corked bottle (Bottled on 17 Jan 2013) bought at Binny's in IL; 2013 

Style/ABV: Gueuze, 6.0%? 

Reported IBUs: ?

Woo! Sunday night. Wait...no, I'm just kidding. Hopefully this week flies by, and it should, especially with a Bears game on Thursday night. About 3 Fonteinen:

3 Fonteinen is a brewery based out of Beersel, Belgium. The brewery was founded in 1887 as a café and geuzestekerij (a place that blends lambics to make geuze). The company was purchased by Gaston De Belder in 1953, and left to his sons Armand and Guido in 1982. The company bought a brewery in 1998. 3 Fonteinen is one of the few remaining geuzestekerijen. As per the back of my bottle:

"For decades, Armand Debelder has worked as a Geuze blender - just as his father did - mixing young and old lambics from other lambic brewers to create the classic beer of Belgium. Armand has lately begun brewing his own lambic. The Drie Fonteinen beers are among the very few traditional and authentic Geuzes and Lambics being made in Belgium today." 

Tonight's beer, the Oude Geuze, is a natural/authentic geuze consisting of a blend of 1, 2 and 3 year-old lambics aged in oak barrels. The back of my bottle states: "A true Geuze - a blend of 1, 2 and 3 year-old lambic, unfiltered and unpasteurized, and aged in the bottle for at least a year after blending. Refermentation in the bottle gives this Geuze its famous champagne-like spritziness. The lambic that goes into it is brewed only with 60% barley malt, 40% unmalted wheat, aged hops, and water, spontaneously fermented by wild yeasts, and matured in oak casks."

3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze

This beer is aggressively carbonated, as evidenced by the gushing upon pulling out the cork. The beer pours into an orange body, and kicks up two to three-plus fingers of fizzy, spritzy, white head. The head is supported with violent streams of carbonation. This beer is super carbonated in the glass, with numerous streams of bubbles quickly rising to the beer's surface. In bright light the beer is a radiant orange, and the head is clearly white. It's a good looking beer.

You get a lot of fruits and woody tannin on the aroma. I'm getting wood, sulfur, and light basement funk...there's some very faint hints of buttery oak as well. I'm also picking up lots of apples, some grapes, lemons, hints of pears and other stone fruits, and some mild tartness. It's worth noting that this bottle is relatively fresh, and I plan to revisit this beer sometime down the road when it has had a chance to "funk up" in the bottle.

This is actually very nice, and the tartness grows as your drink it. This beer also opens up as it warms, and things are more manageable once the carbonation settles down a bit. For all these reasons, you probably want to give this beer some time in the glass to warm up and settle in. I'm getting bright/tart lemons, sour lemon candy, some apples and grapes, lots of woody tannins, and some wine-like, buttery oak. There's some nice underlying funk, with mild basement, mildew, and hints of gym locker. It's a nice blend of wood, oak, tart lemon and fruit, and good funk.

Like a Gueuze should be, this beer is highly carbonated, very drinkable, and features a light to medium-light mouthfeel. The taste improves as the beer sits in the glass and warms up. At colder temps the beer isn't as sour, and veers into watery territory. At warmer temps, the oak and tart funk comes out. Palate depth is good for the style, and complexity is okay. This beer is going to get better in the bottle, I think. I'm guessing this beer will be fantastic after 3-5 years. You get a blast of tart fruits, wood/oak, and sour funk up front; that rolls into more fruits, some pale malt/straw; the back end dials up the lingering oak/wood tannins. The finish is dry, with lingering wood tannin and some buttery oak.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is a Strong Above-Average, and really reminds me of a nice, oaky white. I would pair this beer accordingly, with pasta with a strong cheese sauce, or fried mushrooms, or calamari. You could also pair this beer with strong cheeses, fruit salads/desserts, and maybe even a grilled chicken or something along those lines. I feel like this Gueuze is a nice blend, and will be even better down the line. I look forward to cracking open a vintage bottle of this in a few years. This one is kind of pricey, but you can't put a price on authentic Belgian beer. (You actually can...and at 15 dollars per 750ml bottle, I think this one worked out). 

Random Thought: The Bears can't lose to the Giants. Right?....?