Watergeus
(has 7 batches)

At last, I got my hands on a bottle of something that has been fascinating me for the past few years, ever since the experienced Groningen brewer Toon van den Broek started venturing in spontaneous fermentation: this first Dutch geuze fully made according to the Belgian tradition, but handily called "Watergeus" and dubbed "oak aged sour ale" in order to avoid issues with HORAL and Belgian legislation, I presume. Bottled in September last year, mine shows a hand written ABV of 6.3% rather than the 5.5% given here. Crown cap and cork seal on this 37.5 cl - indeed - geuze bottle, like e.g. Cantillon does; opens with a pop and smoke coming out of the bottle neck, but no gushing. Thick and moussy, egg-white, quite stable, slowly opening, lightly lacing 'typical' geuze head on a misty peach blonde beer with straw-coloured tinge and fine strings of lively sparkling from the bottom upwards. Aroma indeed very lambic-like, but with its own little twists and turns that even for me remain hard to describe; I get old wrinkled apples, unripe green plums, sour grapes, lots of dusty old bookshelves and cobwebbed attic, artisanal cider, old herbarium plants, dried old lemon peel, very 'Bretty' damp hay and horse stable, manzanilla, light touches of old bread crust, stale urine, chlorine (which I most often found in old Boon lambic), old cardboard, some vague peachy sweetishness. Brisk, sour onset, lemony lactic acidity right from the start but not overly puckering, blending with hard unripe nectarine and sour grape peel wryness - as in a 'classic' geuze; redcurrant- and green gooseberry-like aspects too, with only the slightest touch of hidden peachy sweetishness. Well-bodied, with lively, cava-like sparkling; old bread-like malt and wheat soil totally dried by the lactic acidity, with a bone dry, powdery mouthfeel as a result - again, as in a proper geuze. Increasing Bretty colours in the second half: the classic 'horseblanket' Michael Jackson pointed out, old urine, fermenting hay, old books, soaking wet old leather. Strong 'old' woody tannins assist the tartness in drying the back of the mouth, but the fruity acidic aspects keep it lively and juicy; all the way at the back, a clear note of 'deaf', earthy, musty, non-aromatic old hop bitterness pops up within this drying tartness - once more, like many traditional Senne Valley geuzes. Wow... to say that this surpasses my expectations, is an understatement: I had non-Senne attempts at spontaneous fermentation before (sadly not Jester King's Spon project yet, but that is bound to happen this year) but none of them has managed to capture the character of lambic and 'oude' geuze as well as this one. If I had to taste this blind, there would not have been a doubt in my mind that this was indeed a proper, Belgian geuze; the question here, therefore, is not whether this is indeed a true geuze or not (regardless of legal restrictions surrounding the term), but whether it's a successful one. To me, suffering from a lambic addiction and having enjoyed countless traditional geuzes over many years, the answer is a resounding "yes": this is, for the first time perhaps at least in my tasting experiences, a completely credible, full-blown and delicious example of the style, nothing more, nothing less. Making something like this must have taken a tremendous amount of time, effort and dedication, but mister van den Broek pulled it off as far as I'm concerned. I guess the atmospheric microflora of Groningen, as this is allegedly made from completely spontaneous fermentation and who am I to doubt that, is not that dissimilar from the one in the Senne Valley - or rather, perhaps the one in the Senne Valley is less unique than we thought. Of course, the beer revolution is still young and both lambic blending as the products themselves take a huge amount of time to mature - I have often wondered why spontaneous fermentation should be limited to the Senne Valley, but this question is now answered: it isn't, or better put, it shouldn't be. Who knows what will come out of this if craft brewers around the world keep experimenting with, and perfecting, their attempts at spontaneous fermentation, following the lambic tradition completely and into detail like this one does, or not. I hate to say it as a Belgian, but the Dutch have now proven that they too can do this. Or at least one Dutchman can...

Bottle @ home. Hazy light orange colour with a medium sized beige head. Smells sour, fruity, dusty, oak. Tastes sour, oak, wood, fruity (green apple, plum, raspberry, cranberry). Quite nice. Medium body, nice carbo. Good one!

Many thanks to Shivandragon for this 37.5cl bottle! Sour fruity nose. The beer starts fruity sour, intense. Horse blanket, wood, lots of fresh smooth sourness. Intense fruity, deep with a great sour fruity funky ending. Fantastic deep in the aftertaste, very dry, fruity sour with an extreme intense fruity funkiness. Dry, sour fruity, fantastic!

Bottle at home from De Bierkonig, 27th December 17. Ahhh I love Christmas. Pours an orange beer, nice white head. Aroma is cellar, sour fruit, barrel, wood. Taste is tart fruit, aged soaked wood, good and sour, but some sweetness relief also, sharp, slight acidic. These beers are so raw they always take me back to drinking at a geuze brewery, or a cafe in Bruges, happy memories. This geuze from a Dutch brewery is very impressive, love this, drinking by the fire.

Bottle @ home. Hazy amber/yellow colour, white creamy foam. Lots of citrus, barnyard, wood, wet blanket. Complex aroma. Lemony and tart taste with green apple and wood. Some raw bitterness. Very impressive for a Dutch "geuze"!