Tag Archives: fruit lambic

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

3 Fonteinen Intens Rood PX

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 7.1%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°79, Season 19/20

Brewer Description: (from bottle) While looking for old sherry barrels, we cannot get lucky all the time. While we will be sourcing barrels directly from bodegas to assure provenance and quality, we had a batch of Pedro Ximenez (PX) barrels that was on the peated side (albeit subdued). As a result, we decided not to use them for Zenne y Frontera, but to blend them with other (fruit) lambikken into geuze and fruit blends.

This is the first of such blends to be released. Sour cherries were macerated partly on young peated lambik and partly on two-year old straight lambik in a stainless steel tank. We blended with young and three-year old (!) lambik. 55% of the blend is old lambik and the final fruit intensity is 567 grams of sour cherries per litre.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.24
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°79, season 19/20, bottled on 7th October 2020. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: It was a deep dark red colour with a purplish hue, and a very thin pinkish head that dissipated quickly, while leaving only sparse to no lacing.
Aroma: Lots of cherry, oak, damp wood, red wine, lemon, with notes of almond milk.
Taste: Sour, tart, cherry, lemon zest, oak, damp wood, light funk, with maybe light sherry notes.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: I’m not sure if the PX barrel is having much influence on the Intens Rood, as the sherry notes are quite light if any. On top of that, I know it says ‘subdued peat’ in regards to the barrel, but really, I’m not getting any peat in both the aroma or the flavour. Despite this, it’s still enjoyable, with lots of cherry, although perhaps not quite as good as the regular Intens Rood in my opinion.

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

3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek Geturfd PX

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 7.3%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°75, Season 19/20

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This Oude Kriek was macerated with sour cherries for almost eleven months. The lambikken used while macerating were both one- and two-year old. We also used one-, two- and three-year old lambikken from (peated) sherry barrels to blend the sour cherry lambik into a Kriek. By doing so, the weighted average age of this Kriek is a tad less than two-and-a-half years upon release. Final fruit intensity of 354 grams per litre of Kriek. 100% 3 Fonteinen.

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

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°75, season 19/20, bottled on 9th September 2020. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A nice very lightly hazy but deep ruby red colour with a very thin pinkish white head that really didn’t want to form, while leaving only sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Slightly tart, cherry, cherry skin, oak, with light notes of almond and maybe sherry.
Taste: Sour, tart, cherry, cherry skin, sharp lemon acidity, oak, sherry, a touch of minerals, with some almond in the background.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: This was pretty similar to the regular Oude Kriek, although the carbonation was too soft. There was also supposed to be lambic from peated sherry barrels, but unlike the Oude Geuze Geturfd, while I felt there was some sherry, this peat was near non-existent in the aroma or flavour. An interesting experiment, but I don’t think it improved on the original Oude Kriek.

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

3 Fonteinen Perzik Wit Vroege Amsden

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6.5%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°24, Season 18/19

Brewer Description: (from bottle in Dutch) 3 Fonteinen Perzik wordt bekomen door de maceratie van handgeplukte en handmatig ontpitte perziken op jonge traditionele lambik, gedurende minstens vier maanden, in een verhouding van één kilo perziken per liter. Daarna wordt de fruitlambik verder geassembleerd met jonge lambik en wordt alles gebotteld en zet de vergisting zich verder in de fles. Deze Perzik is een verfijnde fruitlambik met uitbundige aroma’s van steenvruchten. De perziken zijn afkomstig van Ludo Rosseels, één van de laatste, zoniet de laatste Belgische perzikenteler. Natuurlijk fruit, zonder toevoeging van sappen, siropen, of suikers. Ongefilterd en ongepasteuriseerd.

Voor deze specifieke witte perzikenlambik werd de variëteit Vroege Amsden gebruikt en gedurende 5,5 maanden gemacereerd op 3 Fonteinen lambik in een eikenhouten vat. De finale fruitintensiteit bedraagt 412 gram perziken per liter witte perzikenlambik.

(translated to English) 3 Fonteinen Peach is obtained by maceration of hand-picked and manually pitted peaches on young traditional lambic, for at least four months, at a ratio of one kilo of peaches per litre. Then the fruit lambic is further assembled with young lambic and everything is bottled and the fermentation continues in the bottle. This Peach is a refined fruit lambic with exuberant aromas of stone fruits. The peaches come from Ludo Rosseels, one of the last, if not the last Belgian peach grower. Natural fruit, without the addition of juices, syrups, or sugars. Unfiltered and unpasteurized.

For this particular white peach lambic, the Vroege Amsden variety was used and macerated for 5.5 months on 3 Fonteinen lambic in an oak barrel. The final fruit intensity is 412 grams of peaches per liter of white peach lambik.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.45
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°24, season 18/19, bottled on 20th December 2018. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A very nice slightly hazy golden orange colour with a thin white head that dissipated fairly quickly to a ring around the glass, while leaving some lacing.
Aroma: Peach sour gummy candy, juicy peach, yellow stone fruit, lemon zest, with light notes of oak and funk.
Taste: Sour, tart, peach, apricot, nectarine, lemon, light funky notes and a touch minerally.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Loved the aroma which was full of peach and just nearly perfect. I could just smell that all day long. Flavorwise, there was perhaps less funk and it was more sour than expected. Just minor things, but still very peachy and still really enjoyable.

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

3 Fonteinen Druif Dornfelder

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 9%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°30, Season 19/20

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Druif, we used Dornfelder grapes from Wijndomein Hoenshof in Hoepertingen, Haspengouw region, Flanders. Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety, originally from Germany. We co-fermented lambic with freshly-pressed-shortly-skin-macerated Dornfelder grape juice in an oak foeder. We let it sit for four months and blended the grape lambic with some fresh lambic wort for the “prise de mousse” in the bottle. The final fruit intensity is 51.7% of grape juice per litre of Druif Dornfelder. 100% 3 Fonteinen.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.28
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°30, season 19/20, bottled on 22nd January 2020. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A very nice deep dark burgundy colour with a one finger pinkish purple head that dissipated fairly quickly to a nice but thin replenishing cap, while leaving nice lacing.
Aroma: Grape skin, vinous, blackberry, with light musty, funky, oaky notes.
Taste: Sour, red wine vinous, grape skin, oak, with some light musty and funky notes.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: This was very enjoyable and it got better the more I drank. It was vinous and almost wine like, but also had nice oak and funk characteristics.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Druif Muscaris

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 9.1%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°16, Season 20/21

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This Druif features the Muscaris variety, a crossing between Solaris and Muskateller. This rather young variety originates from the Freiburg region in Germany and combines an intense muscat bouquet with a higher sugar density than other Muscat varieties (especially when harvested slightly late). Anyhow, we put the must with fifteen-months old lambik on a small oak foeder. The lambikken that we used for blending, was a three-year old lambik (and makes up more than 10% of the total volume). The final fruit intensity is 469 grams of Muscaris grapes per litre of Druif. 100% 3 Fonteinen.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.95
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°16, season 20/21, bottled on 19th January 2021. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden orange colour with a very thin white head that dissipated quickly to a ring around the glass, while leaving some lacing.
Aroma: Candy-ish sweet, white grape, muscat, grape gummy candy, with light tart notes, funk, and a touch vinous.
Taste: Sour, light tart, funky, vinous, muscat, grape skin, grapefruit, orange, oak.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Good and interesting grape muscat aromas. But flavourwise, it had some strong notes of grapefruit and orange along with the vinous grape, with the citrus being somewhat ‘spicy’, almost cocktail like. And while this was fine, it wasn’t among my favourites.