Oude Geuze VAT 108

Bottle sample. Hazy golden color small white head. Aroma of citrus, apples, dusty attic corners. Taste is dusty funky fruit, soft carbonation, soft sourness. My favorite of the four I think.

Bottle @ home. Tasted side by side with an Allagash Coolship Resurgam (2013). Yellow orange appearance with a spritz tan head. The Flavor has lots of lemon citrus, funk, hay, oak, and light tannins. Spritzy and refreshing. I like it.

The fourth and, for me, last one in this generous discovery box of Boon "Mono blends"; here the 90% old lambic comes from a very old cask (dated back to 1935) originally used by another lambic brewery in a bygone era, apparently one which made lambic containing a lot of "volatile acids" - a term borrowed from wine culture, where it generally refers to Acetobacter infection, i.e. production of acetic acid (vinegar, simply put). Creamy, practically regularly shaped, dense, egg-white head, showing minor gaps here and there minutes after pouring but otherwise remarkably stable; very warm 'old gold', deep and almost 'metallic orange', with swirling strings of champagne-like bubbles playfully curling upwards and effectively sustaining the head; initially cristal clear, with only minute and very disparate dots of yeast every now and then. Shifts to a misty, warmer peachy orange as, in the very end, the sediment is gently added. As is announced on the back label, the aroma indeed shows a strikingly noble, 'calm', distinguished and sedate old lambic character, more so than the three others in this series, hinting at dried old apples, sherry vinegar and very old oxidized sherry, dusty old cupboards, wet lumber, a faint hint of chlorine I often find in Boon blends which contain a proportionally high amount of old lambic but subtle enough to add complexity rather than disfigure the nose, unripe peaches and apricot kernels, very old linseed, straw, subtly embellished with faint suggestions of cottage cheese, sweat and lemon flesh from the small portion of added young lambic. Crisp, immediately drying onset, impressions of sour crabapples, unripe bitter apricots and raw rhubarb, with a thin slice of lemon thrown in adding a more vivid, refreshing acidity; sweetness is, unlike in some of the other Boon mono blends, as good as completely absent, yet the dryness and bitter, sour and 'green' fruitiness keeps things juicy and quenching. Carbonation is what I expect it to be from a traditional geuze: lively, minerally and crystalline, but effectuated by small bubbles like in a sparkling wine - and therefore not overpowering the flavour, but instead facilitating drinkability. The sourness stretches over the entire palate, hinting a bit at sherry vinegar but not in a harsh way at all; the lack of residual sugars adds to a complete and utter, very quenching, mouthwatering dryness, lying on a soft bed of bready barley and subtly soap-ish, cereally wheat. Ends bone dry like it began, with lemon peel- and unripe grape-like aspects to it, as well as a notably (old) sherryish effect and a warm, elegant, clever amount of rustic woody tannins. A touch of deeply situated, almost 'mute' but structurally very effective and eventually - all the way at the back - leafy, 'dusty' hop bitterness colours the tail, briefly highlighted by a glow of gently warming alcohol. I hugely enjoyed the entire series - and the other, individually released Boon VATs for that matter - but this is perhaps a tad more remarkable than the others: very dry indeed, I see the link with those volatile (acetic) acids now, but they do their job in a most sophisticated way. Craft brewers aspiring for lambic-like sours may produce cleverly concocted sour beers every now and then, but this amount of finesse, depth and detailed complexity is - in my humble opinion - seldom seen outside the traditional lambic world. This VAT 108 is dry to the bone (Boon?) but has the nobility, allure and artistic maturity of any great sherry, madera or port. Different and absolutely great - probably my favorite of the four in this box.

Bottle @ home. Golden colour with a medium sized white head. Smells wood, oak, sour, fruity, slightly dusty, slightly rubbery, apricot, orange. Nice smell. Tastes sour, malty, hint of iron, slightly dusty, fruity. Sweet undertone. Medium body, soft to medium carbo.

Bottle picked up from Dranken Geers, Oostakker, nr Gent, Belgium consumed at Mum and Keith's, Kempsey, Worcestershire, Friday 5th January 2018 Dirty gold colour with a white head. Really very different from Vat 91, this is a lot more punchy, zappy, tangy and sharper. It is still very approachable particularly to those who are new to the style. Some zappy lemon, in fact the lemon lingers, it is furry across the roof of the mouth. Very nice. A8 A4 T8 P5 Ov17 4.2

C: Head reduced tot white rim, but remaining stable over orangey beer. 4/5 N: Outspoken lemony nose, overriding the other characteristics. 8/10 T:Same in the taste, a very lemony flavour, more than the other Vats. 8/10 MF: The mouthfeel shares in the peculiarities, sporting an clear dry-out effect. 4/5 Overall: Quite towards the sharp side. 17/20 Thanks to M & L!