Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

The very first in this highly entertaining series of Boon Monoblends, released in 2013, with the main lambic (the one coming specifically from VAT 44 and constituting 90% of the blend) already brewed five years earlier than that. I have followed and loved this series ever since but strangely found that this original one was the only one I had not yet rated here in spite of having tasted it back then - due to the fact that most of my ratings here were imported from Ratebeer, which for some reason aliased this first edition to the VAT 77 edition released in 2014. I do not remember the reason why they considered both editions to be identical, but if all the others (VAT 16, VAT 31, VAT 108 and so on, and so forth) are separate, then it feels only logical to also keep VAT 44 and VAT 77 separate as it is done here - but this of course presented me with the challenge of finding a vintage bottle of the 44 to re-review, for which I cannot thank my beer buddy Bart enough. Needs a bit of forcing to develop a head but once it is there, it remains for the entire session, as an egg-white, densely structured, medium thick, partially breaking but regular, shred-lacing head, over an initially clear, warm old-golden beer with orangey glow and disparate, fine-bubbled sparkling, turning misty further on. Somewhat faded aroma of storage apples, wet wooden boards, unripe pear and unripe green peach, bread crust, yellow curry powder somewhere or perhaps even 'vin jaune', old wool blankets and jute bags, raw courgette, bitter garden weeds, a faint whiff of old dried orange pith and a bit of 'rusty' oxidation upon opening but completely vanishing in an instant (and not returning). Still crisp onset, but in a mellowed way, with lots of unripe stonefruit, wild apple and some gooseberry, only softly tart so notably 'mals' even for a Boon blend; this softness is, for a large part, due to the carbonation having partially dissolved (explaining the forcing needed to obtain a head as well), because even if minute bubbles are still visible in the beer, on the tongue they feel weakened compared with a fresh bottle of any representative of this series. Supple, rounded body, lactic tartness running through a very bready core - tasting more bready, especially in the finish, than when it was young, probably due to dead yeast effects but very agreeable. Astringent woody tannins in the finish, along with this continuing breadiness and mellowed tart fruit effects - with more sharpness coming from the wood than from any of the acids. Adding complexity, however, are a background of Brettanomyces funkiness (Michael Jackson's proverbial horseblanket), with these wild yeasts also having made the beer drier than it was when it was young; in the tail, a deep, 'dark green', earthy bitterness of old hops trails, lingering for a long time after swallowing. Retronasally a brief whiff of this typical 'rusty' oxidation is noticeable for a moment. After twelve years of ageing in the bottle, this blend still displays complexity, but it is clear that the 'sparkle' has faded, due to the flavours in generally having been leveled a bit, the carbon dioxide having escaped in an important degree and some vague and volatile oxidation having set in. Maybe these Monoblends are not the best options for long-time cellaring - after all, their sheer composition of 90% old lambic with only 10% young lambic probably already gives that away. I would not recommend keeping them for any longer than the twelve years this particular sample has been ageing - even those twelve years are already a bit of a stretch if you are particularly fussy about the quality of your lambic. But I am nitpicking here: the lingering effects of bread, sour apples and stonefruit as I am writing this, remaining in the throat long after the woody and old-hoppy effects have slowly disappeared, are highly enjoyable. First and foremost, though, I am very happy to have revisited this one after twelve years - the memory of first getting to know this series is a cherished one, and I admit I like filling in the gap as well, so big cheers to Bart for this bottle!

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Sampled at the time of ratebeer, which Always had a merge for 44 and 77 . i'm hapy with brewver doing things different though, as I think ( especially with these 2 ) there are very big differences, and very different scores to be given. Since my Original entry was made for the double entry ( and I loved 77 so much i wanted that to be reflected in the score ) I dont have any good notes left of 44. I sampled it multiple times, both young and old ( in a vertical of all editions in 2018 , if i remember correctly ). 44 is often named as the best one, but for me, it's somewhere in the middle out of th e8 versions we've had so far. I remember it being specifically woody, funky, tart, and sour. Still balanced, but not overly great. fine blend, but forever overpowered by the magnificent 77 to me.

Rzeski, owocowy, chlalny, smaczny bardzo