Category Archives: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen

3 Fonteinen Druif Gewurztraminer

Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 7.8%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°35, Season 22/23

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Druif, we macerated the ever fragrant Gewurztraminer grape, harvested in the summer 2022 in Bourgheim, Alsace, on one- and three-year old lambik, for more than four months. The old portion accounts for almost 80%, rendering the weighted average age of more than 31 months. The final fruit intensity is 437 grams of Gewurztraminer grapes per litre of finished Druif. Almost 65% of the nine different lambikken were brewed with local cereals. A small part of this blend was also bottled on magnums. 100% 3 Fonteinen.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.23
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°35, season 22/23, bottled on 26th January 2023. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy golden orange colour with a half finger white head that had good retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Grape must, white wine grapes, sweet mandarin peel, light citrus rind, funk, wood, and notes of bandaid.
Taste: Sour, tart, white wine grapes, grape skin, citrusy, grapefruit peel bitter, mandarin sweetness, funky, oak, orange.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Good balanced aroma and flavours, with nice vinous, citrus and funky notes.

3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Cuvée Armand & Gaston Langste Kook

Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 7.4%
Style: Lambic – Gueuze
Other Notes: Blend°42, Season 21/22

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Langste Kook / Longest Boil – a special version of the Cuvée Armand & Gaston – we brewed a typical lambik wort, but with an extended boiling time. We usually boil for five hours – the highest in the lambik world and about tenfold of modern beer brewing. Now, we boiled a whopping eighteen hours. 18. Hours. After a full year of barrel fermentation and maturation, we blended with a young portion of lambik to assure continued bottle fermentation. With a weighted average age of the blend of almost twelve months upon bottling, this is a rather young geuze, but all lambikken were brewed with Pajottenland grains from our own Cereal Collective.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.24
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°42, season 21/22, bottled on 23rd February 2022. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy copper amber orange colour with a just over one finger beige head, that had good retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, bright, lemon zest, citrus rind, green apple, oak, musty, funk.
Taste: Sour, tart, grapefruit, citrus rind, green apple, oak, funk, with hints of berries and caramel.
Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: An interesting variant, that’s not quite as good as the original, but it’s young, has a great aroma, and drinks easy.

3 Fonteinen Vlierbloesem

Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6.2%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°79, Season 21/22

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Vlier, we macerated freshly picked blossoming elderflowers on two-year old lambik. For this blend, we did not backblend. The weighted average age of this Vlier still amounts to more than 29 months upon the day of bottling. Of the grains that we used during brewing, more than two thirds were sourced in our cereal collective, mostly in Pajottenland. The hops were, on average, 18 years old while brewing. 100% 3 Fonteinen. Bottle count: 528.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.38
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°79, season 21/22, bottled on 3rd June 2022. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy dark orange colour with a two finger white head that had great retention and left lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Elderflower, earthy, grass, oak, damp wood, funk, with light notes of grapefruit zest.
Taste: Sour, tart, floral, elderflower, grass, hay, oak, light funk, lemon zest, grapefruit.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Enjoyable with good balance between the floral, citrus and funky elements. The key for me is that it’s not overly floral.

3 Fonteinen Frambozenlambik

Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5.7%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°22, Season 19/20

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this small batch Frambozenlambik, we used raspberries from Ferme Framboos, located in beautiful Huldenberg, Flanders. These raspberries, hand-picked in the summer of 2019, macerated for three months on stainless steel. While macerating, we only used lambik originating from one brew and from one barrel; no lambik was added prior to bottling. The final fruit intensity is still 371 grams of raspberries per litre of Frambozenlambik.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.2
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°22, season 19/20, bottled on 14th January 2020. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy pinkish orange colour with a thin white head that disappeared quickly to a ring around the glass, while leaving only sparse lacing.
Aroma: Jammy raspberry, strawberry, oak, lemon zest, and a touch tart.
Taste: Sour, tart, raspberry, lemon juice, lemon zest, oak, with light funky notes.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Good enjoyable aroma and flavours with just the lack of carbonation limiting it a bit.

3 Fonteinen Cassis

Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6.7%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°26, Season 21/22

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this first ever Cassis, we macerated freshly harvested cassis berries on an ex-Bordeaux barrel for a good four months. The lambics used for macerating and blending were all two years old, and originating from two different barrels and eight different brews. The weighted average age of this blend clocks at 26 months. The final fruit proportion is 313 grams of cassis berries used per litre of finished fruit lambik. The berries were manually picked at Purfruit, a small community supported orchard in West-Flanders, Belgium.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.29
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°26, season 21/22, bottled on 3rd February 2022. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A deep purple red colour, with a one finger pinkish head that had decent retention, and eventually settled to a thin cap, while leaving some lacing.
Aroma: Blackcurrant, damp wood, lemon zest, green vines, a touch funky.
Taste: Lightly sour, tart, blackcurrant, lemon juice, citrus zest, rhubarb, oak, green vines (“raw”), with some light funky notes.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: The blackcurrant aroma and flavours works for me, but there is some rhubarb-y, “green” and “raw” notes that detract from it a bit in this blend.