Flaska från SB. Disig gyllengul vätska med mycket högt vitt krämigt skum. Stor kropp, rejält med kolsyra och relativt söt. Ändå krispig och relativt torr, måttligt funkig. Klassisk trevligt smakbild med syrliga äpplen, citrus, strå, med en ganska snäll syra och en stram citrusbeska i slutet. Mycket gott utan att vara så där klockren.

750ml bottle. Pours misty pale golden with a foamy white head. Aroma: barnyard, lemon peel, green apple skins, hay. Taste: crisp, dry, moderate acidity, plenty of funk, lemony, more green apple skins, gooseberry, oak, some minerality. Medium body with spritzy carbonation.

The lovely biennial event that is Toer de Geuze had to be cancelled again this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but fortunately this was no reason for HORAL, the association of traditional lambic producers in the Pajottenland region, to skip their festive Megablend geuze, this year containing lambic from Lindemans, Timmermans, Tilquin, De Troch, Hanssens and (for the first time ever) Lambiek Fabriek. Bottle bought at Tilquin, opening with a loud bang and lots of ‘gunsmoke’ like an ice cold bottle of champagne – but no gushing whatsoever. Very thick, foamy, egg-white, cobweb-lacing, highly stable head on a lightly misty straw blonde beer with warm ‘old’ golden hue and strong ‘champenoise’ sparkling, turning cloudy in the end. Strong, funky, powerful bouquet: old lemon peel, dry hay and entire haystacks, lemon balm in some old herbarium, bread crust, barnyard, sourdough, armpit sweat, rhubarb, raw celery, green plum, old worn-out leather, dusty attic. Very crisp onset, lemony acidity at first (rather sharply) but quickly receding and making room for a more sedate, ‘deep’ lactic sourness, lots of lively esteriness, plum-, apple- and gooseberry-like, mitigating that initial lemony sting a bit; lots of minerality and refreshing sparkling over a bread-crusyt base buried under a complex of sour and fruity flavours mingled with outspoken, even somewhat astringent tannic woodiness, ending dry but still juicy and quenching, while funky elements from the Brettanomyces appear retronasally (sweat, damp hay, horseblanket – you know the drill). I haven’t always spent as much attention to these Megablends as I should have but I have enjoyed each and every one of them for their differences in personality – yet this one for me stands out, as being the most powerful, complex and funky edition I had so far. This is an absolutely perfect geuze for me – if only I had bought more bottles. Will certainly age very well, too.