Monthly Archives: June 2023

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij Oud Beersel, Lambic - Gueuze

Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille Barrel Selection Whisky Edition Port Wood

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Brewery: Brouwerij Oud Beersel
Country: Belgium
ABV: 8%
Style: Lambic – Gueuze
Other Notes: 2022 vintage. Bottled 20 years before best before date

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Barrel selection whisky barrels port wood.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.86
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.7

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle with a best before date of 15th September 2042. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen gueuze glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden colour, with a one and a half finger fluffy white head that had good retention, and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Sweet and tart, melon, lemon zest, vanilla, honey, oak, light funk.
Taste: Subtle sweet beginning, berry gummy candy, vanilla, yoghurt, honey, melon, lightly sour, tart, lemon zest, wood, light funk.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium bodied, with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Wow, loved this. Quite possibly one of my favourite gueuze’s out there. Easy to drink, with great aroma and flavours.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij Oud Beersel, Lambic - Gueuze

Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille Barrel Selection Demi-Muids

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Brewery: Brouwerij Oud Beersel
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6.5%
Style: Lambic – Gueuze
Other Notes: 2021 vintage. Bottled 20 years before best before date

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Demi-Muids are wooden barrels up to 650 litres with thick staves. The Demi-Muids at Oud Beersel, which we purchased in 2013, had previously held Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Bordeaux red wines for 9 years. Since making their way to Oud Beersel, these Demi-Muids have been exclusively used to age Lambic.

My rating: 4+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.39
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 375ml corked and caged bottle with a best before date of 10th November 2041. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen gueuze glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden orange colour, with a one finger white head that had pretty good retention, while leaving some nice curtain like lacing.
Aroma: Grapefruit, orange peel, lemon juice, green apple, cucumber, hay, wood, funk. At times it seemed like there was stone fruit and leather.
Taste: Crisp green apple, lemon, oak, funk, with notes of melon and leather.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate prickly carbonation.
Overall: A very enjoyable gueuze that drank easy with great aroma and flavours.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Speling van het Lot XII.i: Braam On A Toast – Blended & Alive

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5.9%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°15, Season 18/19. Number of bottles – 1088

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen “Speling van het Lot” (Twist of Fate) is a series of small batch experimental brews, barrel maturations, fruit macerations and/or blends. This 12th version features a 10.5 month maceration of blackberries on a medium toasted 1,000 litre barrel. The total fruit intensity is a staggering 843 grams of fruit per litre of finished blackberry lambic.

My rating: 4-
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.12
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°15, season 18/19, bottled on 13th December 2018. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy dark amber crimson colour with a very thin white head and pretty much no lacing.
Aroma: Blackberry seeds, blackberry jam, wood, with some light funk.
Taste: Tart, lightly sour, blackberry, blackberry seed, lemon zest, wood, and light funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft to no carbonation.
Overall: Good blackberry aroma and flavours, but my preference is for some carbonation, and there is a distinct lack of it here.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Speling van het Lot IX.ix: Aardbeiiteraties: Aardbei + Kriek – Blended & Alive with some wort

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5.9%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°47, Season 18/19. Number of bottles – 939

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen “Speling van het Lot” (Twist of Fate) is a series of small batch experimental brews, barrel maturations, fruit macerations and/or blends. This 9th version features a range of strawberry maceration iterations aiming at balancing the intense fruitiness of strawberries with the subtleties of traditional lambic while minimising the unpleasant phenolic characteristics of the small pits. For this fruit lambic we barrel macerated sour cherries on a previous barrel macerated strawberry lambic (featured in the ToF IX.viii). The proportion is 70% strawberries to 30% sour cherries, while the final intensity is 462 grams of fruit per liter of finished fruit lambic. Additional maceration took another 4 months, and while blending, we primed with fresh wort instead of refined sugar.

My rating: 4+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.48
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°47, season 18/19, bottled on 1st March 2019. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy amber pinkish orange colour with a two finger white head that had pretty good retention and eventually settled to a nice replenishing cap, while leaving some lacing.
Aroma: Zingy, strawberry jammy, strawberry seeds, light cherry, orange peel, wood, hay, funk.
Taste: Sour, tart, strawberry, yoghurt, lemon, cherry, wood, straw, funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Enjoyable aroma and flavours. The strawberries really shine through which is rare in most beers that have tried incorporating strawberries.

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Wijnbergperzik

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6.5%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°24, Season 21/22

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Perzik, we macerated vineyard peaches on two- and three-year old lambics. Maceration took a full four months, before blending with more two-year old lambics. This brings the weighted average age of this fruit blend to 26 months upon bottling. The lambics used in this blend originate from not less than five different barrels and fourteen different brews, of which the oldest was brewed in November 2018. The peaches were manually picked in the Mosel region in Germany, in between the steep hilled vineyards. The final fruit intensity clocks at 362 grams of vineyard peaches used per litre of finished Wijnbergperzik.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.65
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.5

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°24, season 21/22, bottled on 1st February 2022. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden copper orange colour with a big two finger white head that had pretty good retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Juicy peach, stone fruit skin, peach gummy candy, lemon zest, oak, and funk.
Taste: Lightly sour, tart, peach, orange, lemon zest, wood, and funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Another really enjoyable perzik lambic from 3 Fonteinen. Balanced fruit, sourness and funk combined with a good amount of peach in the aroma and flavour. Super refreshing.