Pipes and Barrels

375mL bottle from Oud Beersel. Pours murky brown with a beige head. Dark dried berries, gentle funk, leather on the nose. Flavour has dried cranberries, some musty old wood, leather. Very nice.

375mL bottle, pours a cloudy dark amber brown with a medium beige head. Aroma has a nice musty leather character upfront, moderate barnyard funk, and a touch of dark dried fruits. Flavour is much the same, with tart red fruits, leather, and gentle funk. Finishes tart and leathery. Solid blend.

Botella @Oud Beersel. Tour Gueuze 2024. 05/04/2024. Color ambarino corona de espuma blanca aromas y sabores madera, ácida, cuerpo medio.

Bottle. Color: Dark ruby, large light brown head. Aroma: Tart, caramel and dark fruit notes.Taste: Tart, Balsamico vinegar, fruity lemon and gooseberry, oak wood, funky notes, some dark dried fruit and iron. Over moderate to medium tart. Very light bitterness. Medium body, average carbonation. Nice and refreshing.

Pours fairly clear, dark brown. Scent is very toasty, roasty, earthy. Reminding me of the dark lambic once made by 3F. Taste is very dry and sharp, roasty and toasty, very mildly acetic. Strong pungent apple aroma typical to OB, Ashy factor as well almost. Very different and unique, but not a particular combo I enjoy as much as I hoped I would.

Blend of 70% De Leite Bon Homme (a dubbel) with 30% Oud Beersel lambic, from a 37.5 cl 'geuze bottle' with cork and muselet. Opens with a bang but no gushing. Thickly moussy, crackling, quite coarse and large-bubbled, pale grey-beige head slowly thinning over an initially clear, warm and deep caramel brown robe with coppery to almost purplish hue, turning misty only in the very end. Aroma largely dominated by the lambic, with impressions of redcurrant, lemon juice, lots of old wood, crabapple, unripe green plum, cracked leather, 'horseblanket', dry earth, brown bread crust (almost burnt), dusty attic, unripe blackberries, sherry vinegar or even vague balsamico, dried rose petals, autumn leaves, faint roasted chicory. Tart, crisp onset, again dominant lambic effects, lemon, blackberries, redcurrant and wild apple sourness, very fruity and lively, with spritzy, geuze-like effervescence; smooth, rather full body, minerally carbonation effects piercing through a brown-bready and slightly beech-nutty core, accompanied by strong woody tannins and lingering unripe stonefruit astringency, yet maintaining a colourful 'dark' and sour fruitiness throughout. Earthy notes in the finish, with that lemon juice-like sourness continuing, but also red berries and wild apples still going strong. Dubbel with lambic equals old school 'versnijbier' or 'coupagebier', a practice still carried on by a handful of producers, but in most of those more 'classic' cases the emphasis remains on the sweetness and maltiness of the dubbel, whereas here the lambic has really taken over, with its sourness, funkiness and esteriness penetrating the Bon Homme deeply and relentlessly - in fact, the end result is perhaps better described as a 'dark lambic' rather than an old-fashioned versnijbier. I love Oud Beersel lambics but in this particular case, I was hoping to see more of De Leite's Bon Homme as well - do not get me wrong, though, this creation has complexity, intelligence, elegance and character to the brim. Prolonged cellaring may lead to interesting results with this kind of beer, too, I think.

Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2023, Friday. Reddish brown beer with a beige head. Aroma and Taste of intense sour red berries, grapes, wood, brett, funk.