Hanssens Oude Gueuze

Brewed By: Hanssens Artisanaal in Dworp, Belgium  

Purchased: 750ml (1 Pint 9.4oz) bottle bought at Binny's in Naperville, IL; 2014 (bottled September 2012????)

Style/ABV: Lambic Style - Gueuze, 6.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

I picked up this beer on clearance at Beeennnnny's for like $15 or less. Hopefully it doesn't suck. About Hanssens Artisanaal:

Hanssens Artisanaal is a brewery based out of Dworp, Belgium. The brewery started back in 1896, when Bartholome Hanssens bought an old dairy farm, and started the "Saint Anthony" brewery, brewing brown table beer using water from the stream behind the brewery/farm. During World War II, the brewery was compromised. Following the war, Bartholome shifted focus to brewing lambic beer. In 1929, Theo Hanssens took over the brewery; and in 1931 he turned the space into a house where he designed bottle drying racks and other features which are still in use today. Theo was succceeded by his son Jean in 1974. On January 1st, 1998, Hanssens Artisan BVBA was founded by Sidy Hanssens. In addition to brewing a Gueuze and Kriek, the Hanssens introduced the "Old Beitje," or strawberry lambic, to the lineup in 1999. For more info, you can check out the blurb on the brewery here.

The Oude Gueuze Lambic is a legit Gueuze: a blend of various Lambics that are matured for up to three years. This is then bottle refermented for conditioning and aging and all that jazz. 

Hanssens Oude Gueuze

As you'd expect, this yields a hazy and beat up orange body in the glass, kicking up a finger or two of off-white and short-lived head. The head does settle into a nice cauldron effect, and there is some nice carbonation here. It looks pretty standard. I will note that the cage and cork came off comfortably, but also seemed secure. This also didn't even think about gushing.

This has some pretty intense sourness on the aroma, with lactic lemon, pickled fruits, white cider vinegar, and deep notes of sour lemon candies, intensely sour green apples and cherries, tangerine, orange/lemon, and a faint and chalky note that is reminiscent of chocolate. This is also quite funky, with some musty cellar, old attic, and Brett coming along for the ride. It's like dusting off an old leather photo album.

I'm a little surprised at how this isn't quite as sour as the aroma implies. This tastes refreshing and funky, with all the lemon trappings and musty basement funk you would expect. It is sour, but the sourness is manageable. It kind of reminds me of a "natural" sourness, if that makes sense. Like biting into a green Granny Smith apple. This has nice lactic lemons, tangerines, white grape notes, and some hints of dusty and sour cherry/lemon candies. There's a big wet rain and basement funk character, and the finish is surprisingly bright and refreshing. If this is truly a 2012 vintage, it is drinking pretty nice right about now.

This is medium-light bodied, with above-average complexity and good palate depth/duration. As this warms up, the funk starts to crawl out of the woodwork. I'm also picking up some nice woody notes as I work through this. At 6.0%, this works as a sipper. That's a nice thing, especially since a bottle of this isn't cheap. I feel like the discount price of $15 that I paid is right on the money....I'd have a hard time paying a whole lot more. I digress. Up front: tart fruits, lactic character, wet rain, woody funk, lemons, tangerine, white grape; the mids roll into that dusty cherry and lemon candy, with some big wood character, wood tannins, more fruity notes, some jammy fruits; the back end drops Brett funk, funk, wet rain, basement/attic funk....pretty nice and the finish is fairly refreshing. This is super dry on the finish and pulls at the enamel. Not as sour as the aroma leads on but still pretty intense.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. A solid Gueuze for sure...this is actually really delicious, and has some nice woody tannins and funky character. It also opens up a bit as it warms up, and drops some really solid sour fruity notes when it is a bit cooler. This would pair well with mussels, seafood, white pasta, a nice crostini or bruschetta, or pasta with some strong cheese on top. 

Random Thought: Tomorrow night I will park my ass on the couch and watch some football. Realistically, I gotta pick Seattle....but it should be a good game. 

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?....?

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René

Brewed By: Brouwerij Lindemans in Vlezenbeek, Belgium

Purchased: 355ml/12oz bottle bought at Spec's Liquor in Galveston, TX; 2013 (Bottled: 3 Feb 2012)

Style/ABV: Gueuze, 5.2%? 5.5%? 

Reported IBUs: 16

Tonight should wrap up all the beer I bought while vacationing in Texas...I snagged two bottles of tonight's beer, and this is the last of the two.

Lindemans is one of those breweries that is famous and available. Odds are if you've purchased beer at any major grocery store you've stumbled upon their fruity Lambics. But aside from their Framboise, Kriek, Pecheresse, and Apple Lambics, they also brew a traditional Gueuze, and a couple of other treats. The brewery was founded by the Lindemans family in 1822, on a farm in Vlezenbeek, near Brussels. During the winter months when farming slowed down, they brewed beer. In 1930, farming activities were dropped and the focus shifted to brewing. In 1991, the Lindemans family built a new brewery to accomdoate a growing market. You can read more about the brewery on Lindeman's website. It's worth noting that Wikipedia has some additional (and conflicting) information, quoting the start of brewing in 1811. You can check their blurb here.

Gueuze is a fun style of beer. Gueuze are labor-intense and time-consuming beers. The style is a blend of young and old Lambics (spontaneously fermented sour ales). Traditionally, Gueuze is made by mixing one, two, and three-year old Lambic, but the blends can range from Lambics as young as four months to as old as three years. The mastery in crafting a good Gueuze is to find the perfect blend. Once the beers are blended, they are then aged and undergo a secondary fermentation. Traditionally, Gueuze/Geuze were spontaneously fermented with naturally-occurring yeast and bacteria (usually found in oaken barrels), but craft brewers will often inoculate their brew with cultures of yeast including Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus in an effort to reproduce this effect. The base malt for these beers is unmalted wheat, Pilsner malt, and aged hops (used as a preservative, not for bitterness). The flavor and aroma should be balanced and subtle, with mild sour/acidic character balanced by wheat, citrus/fruits, barnyard, and possibly some wood. With that said...on to tonight's beer.

The Gueuze Cuvée René is an Oude Geuze ("old Geuze"), and is unsweetened and a blend of Lambics (blended by hand). This beer has been imported into the US since the early 90s, and naturally, has some batch variation. This beer also ages well, and for the most part, is affordable and widely available. All these factors suggest that this is a great entry-level Gueuze, and maybe much, much more.

I have to give props to Lindemans...the cork containing this lovely elixir parted gracefully, and the beer didn't even hesitate to gush or get cute. Also, the foil wasn't GLUED ON (hint, hint, other breweries), and came off with ease. The beer pours into a hazy/murky dark yellow/straw-colored body. The beer kicked up a finger or two of off-white/gold-tinted head. The head is fueled by wheat, and is competing with the wild yeast and other deterring elements. Needless to say, it's holding up nicely. In bright light the beer is a juicy gold/orange color, and there are mountains of fine carbonation bubbles streaming upwards. This beer is effervescent, and looks like champagne. The head is still slightly off-white in bright light, and is only being kept alive by the streams of carbonation. 

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René

The aroma on this is all kinds of okay. This beer embraces the funk, with big barnyard, wet rain, wet leather, some light cheesiness, and big underlying tart citrus. I'm getting white grapes, grapefruit, lemons/lemon bars/sugary lemon, apples, and pears. The nose is bold enough to set up big expectations in the taste. 

For the most part, the taste delivers. The taste is surprisingly sour up front, with puckering tartness (lemon, green apple, sour candies), followed by bright citrus and apples, and nice acidity. I'm picking up some oak in this, along with a hint of acid/vinegar. There's big lemons, grapefruit, apples/pears, grape, apple juice, wet leather, and tons of very mild funk. The finish shifts to a champagne-like dryness.

The mouthfeel is outstanding, divine stuff. The carbonation is perfect, and the finish is appropriately dry. This is a light-bodied beer, with plenty of tartness, acidity, funk, and a dry finish. While the palate depth is superb, there are moments where the body will fade out for a second and then quickly return...complexity is good but you have to wonder. This starts out sour/funky with some lemon, sour candy, and green apple; that transitions into acidic citrus, grapefruit, grapes, and apple; from there you get some nice wet leather/barnyard, wheat, and funk; the beer then fades out to dryness, with lingering vinegar/acid/lemon.

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is a great sour, with enough complexity to keep veteran drinkers initiated, but with some nice nuance and balance. I'd like to grab a few bottles of this to age. The price is right too...you can snag a 750ml of this for around 10-15 dollars, I believe. This beer would pair well with oysters, duck, mussels, risotto, ceviche, strong cheeses, and meats on sticks. Skip the fruity Lindemans beers and get this.

Random Thought: I think we all can agree that the three most important things in life are sleep, food, and sex. The question, then, is simply: on what order of magnitude do they fall? Surely food is the most important of the bunch (and beer is food). But sleep is pretty important too. But sleep on an empty stomach isn't fun. I guess sex seems like the luxury of the bunch, but anyone that's gone X amount of time without sex knows that it can interfere as much with sleep as an empty stomach. Perhaps the solution is a combination of these things, ala George Costanza. After all, pastrami is the most sensual of the cured meats.