Oude Geuze VAT 31

Bouteille: Orangey-golden coloured, hazy, microscopic floaties visible, stable creamy off-white head (!), moderate to distinctive sourish and mildly sweetish(!) aroma of horseblanket, lemons (peel) and apple-vinegar, some shy mineralic-rusty traces underneath; moderate to solid sour-sweet flavour, pretty full bodied and pretty soft; lingering lemony-spicy finish with a pretty great amount of a balancing malty sweetness in the aftertaste. Devilishly well drinkable..

Bottle from HoTM. It pours slightly hazy orange with a fluffy, lasting white head. The aroma is musty, funky, damp hay, barnyard, apple and pear skin, oak, spice, sourdough bread, zingy lemon, gooseberry and whitecurrant. The taste is quite crisp and firmly dry upfront, zingy, some acidity initially which dissipates and is taken over by a deep woody funk, earthy brett, damp hay, must, lemon rind, pomelo, grapefruit gooseberry, white grape, sherbet, sourdough bread and some light tannin. Alcohol is present underneath and provides a solid backbone. Medium+ body and moderate, fluffy carbonation. Plenty of depth, but also extremely well balanced.

37,5cl bottle (brewed 30.11.2015 and bottled 14.05.2020) from Prik & Tik Dranken Marlou as my #6660. F: big, off-white, good retention. C: gold, light hazy. A: woody, peach, green apples, barnyard, green apricot, light sour fruity, bit caramel. T: very high carbonation, green plums, woody, light sour fruity, peach, bit lactic, warming alcohol touch even, funky, bit bready, mineral touch, medium to full body, absolutely delicious beer, fully enjoyed.

Flaska från Etre Gourmete. Disig gyllengul vätska, högt vitt skum, mycket kolsyra. Funkigare doft än andra Boonlambikar annars typisk. Mogen mjuk syra, aningen mer beska och tanniner, större kropp och mer koncentrerad smak och mer hästfilt, stall, gödsel, funk. Citrus och syrliga äpplen, lätt oxiderad, lite läder, mineraler och järn. Att få dricka så här långlagrad lambik till ett så facilt pris är en ynnest. Tack Boon!

Hapu, kuiv, magus, nisune, tammene, natuke konjakit, alkoholi Väga hea, kindlasti parimate VAT-ide hulgas.

Bottle. Color: Slightly hazy golden, large dwnse white head. Aroma: Funky, barnyard and stable, hay, oak, some citrus. Taste: Light to moderate tart, light to moderate bitterness, light sweet, old hop, hay, old oak wood, subtle fruity notes of citrus, citrus zest, sweet and sour berries and (over)ripe sweetish apples. Quite a lot of barnyard and horsestable funk. Quite smooth and dense, almost foamy mouthfeel. Dry to very dry and astringent mouthfeel at finish. Recognizable older Lambic than most other Geuzes. Very nice.

Huge, just yellowish head, very stable (!) over orangey, veiled beer. Barnyard/horseblanket explosion; lemon, lime, lactic acid. Lemonrind, wheat, faint sweetness, mals in acidity, lactic, mild barnyard. Almost creamy feel (head... bit of iron?), titillating MF with good carbonation, refreshing. One of Franks' best. Thanks to Stef!

New "Mono blend" by Boon, this time with 90% lambic that matured for no less than four and a half years on 'foeder' 31, a wooden barrel built in Germany more than a century ago. Thick, frothy, gently crackling, egg-white, pillowy, fairly large-bubbled but stable head on a hazy rosy-tinged peach blonde beer, the haze perturbed by fine but fierce and ubiquitous sparkling. Strong, 'noble' and complex nose of dry old oak wood, green apple slices, dusty attic, dry hay(stack), apricot kernels, calvados, hints of unripe nectarine, dry bitter herbs, dried peaches, lemon zest, old peanuts, sumac, crumbly dry earth, late and subtle whiff of funky old sweat when warming up. Spritzy onset, lots of minerality from very active, 'champenoise' effervescence prickling the tongue, soft sourness throughout, green apple- and green plum-like, with a sweetish unripe nectarine-like core tempering the acidity; full, almost 'fluffy' mouthfeel, bread- and rusk-like maltiness with a slight peanutty edge buried under this drying, yet altogether gentle lactic sourness, sedate 'dried' sour fruitiness and strongly increasing tannic woodiness, to the point of flirting with astringency, though that soft, stonefruity and bready backbone has an absorbing effect. Still, the finish becomes quite long and dry, with a late but very pronounced and long-stretching, earthy to eventually even quinine-like hop bitterness, seemingly reinforced by this strong woodiness - and, in the end, by a palpable calvados-like, warming alcohol glow; a vague champagne-like flavour is noticeable as well. To my personal appreciation, these Mono blends are among the most interesting and unique contributions Boon has ever made to the lambic world - I absolutely love them all, but this one breathes the nobility and profundity of old lambic perhaps even more than its predecessors, with this champagne-like accent, warming alcohol (more noticeable here than in any of the other Mono blends), strong woody tannins and soft dried fruit astringency - no sharp acidity or playful lemony aspects here, but a deep, mature, aristocratic lambic blend that will no doubt improve in many, many years to come. This is lambic gastronomy at a high level and among the best of these VAT Mono blends so far for me - though it is hard to compare from memory and tasting notes alone, and the competition with its own congeners is particularly stiff. --- Beer merged from original tick of Boon Oude Geuze VAT 31 on 30 Apr 2021 at 21:45 - Score: Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9. Original review text: New Mono blend by Boon, this time with 90% lambic that matured for no less than four and a half years on 'foeder' 31, a wooden barrel built in Germany more than a century ago. Thick, frothy, gently crackling, egg-white, pillowy, fairly large-bubbled but stable head on a hazy rosy-tinged peach blonde beer, the haze perturbed by fine but fierce and ubiquitous sparkling. Strong, 'noble' and complex nose of dry old oak wood, green apple slices, dusty attic, dry hay(stack), apricot kernels, calvados, hints of unripe nectarine, dry bitter herbs, dried peaches, lemon zest, old peanuts, sumac, crumbly dry earth, late and subtle whiff of funky old sweat when warming up. Spritzy onset, lots of minerality from very active, 'champenoise' effervescence prickling the tongue, soft sourness throughout, green apple- and green plum-like, with a sweetish unripe nectarine-like core tempering the acidity; full, almost 'fluffy' mouthfeel, bread- and rusk-like maltiness with a slight peanutty edge buried under this drying, yet altogether gentle lactic sourness, sedate 'dried' sour fruitiness and strongly increasing tannic woodiness, to the point of flirting with astringency, though that soft, stonefruity and bready backbone has an absorbing effect. Still, the finish becomes quite long and dry, with a late but very pronounced and long-stretching, earthy to eventually even quinine-like hop bitterness, seemingly reinforced by this strong woodiness - and, in the end, by a palpable calvados-like, warming alcohol glow; a vague champagne-like flavour is noticeable as well. To my personal appreciation, these Mono blends are among the most interesting and unique contributions Boon has ever made to the lambic world - I absolutely love them all, but this one breathes the nobility and profundity of old lambic perhaps even more than its predecessors, with this champagne-like accent, warming alcohol (more noticeable here than in any of the other Mono blends), strong woody tannins and soft dried fruit astringency - no sharp acidity or playful lemony aspects here, but a deep, mature, aristocratic lambic blend that will no doubt improve in many, many years to come. This is lambic gastronomy at a high level and among the best of these VAT Mono blends so far for me - though it is hard to compare from memory and tasting notes alone, and the competition with its own congeners is particularly stiff.