8

Hapu, leedrine, musta piprane, puuviljane, funky, nats nisu, veits happeline. Äge, pipar sobib hästi siia.

8.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Very special edition of this familiar Cantillon classic: though the label was exactly the same as with other Mamouche editions, the content is very different, in that to a total of 1400 liter of Mamouche, 50 liter of Poivre de Gorilles was added, the black pepper lambic specifically created for Zwanze 2022. This was mentioned on their socials, but the fact that the bottles are labelled identically to ‘normal’ Mamouche (without even a small additional sticker for clarification), causes me to suspect that the addition of the pepper lambic was simply a mistake to begin with – and ‘retconned’ on their Facebook page afterwards as being intentional… Over at Ratebeer a debate has already been held over whether or not this blend should be regarded as a different entry or not, with the outcome being that because of the brewery selling it as just another edition of Mamouche, it should not be seen as a different beer. I remain a bit in doubt about this – but luckily Brewver offers the possibility to rate vintages so here this problem does not exist. Anyway, thanks to Bart A. for sharing. Snow white, moussey, thick, regular head, slowly dissipating over an initially clear, very pure yellow-golden blonde robe with champenoise sparkling, misty in the end. Aroma quite strongly pointing at freshly crushed and roasted black peppercorns – even stronger than the quantitatively much more important elderblossom which comes clearly after, paired with impressions of dried lemon peel, old wood, green apple, minerals, cava, old cheese rind, damp hay, dry capers. Tart, lemony onset, lots of green apple and green plum with a touch of halfripe peach somewhere, lively and minerally carbonated with drying yoghurty sourness pushing through a bread-crusty core; leathery and hayish Brett effects retronasally, quickly overpowered by black peppercorn spiciness – which then fades and gradually makes room for the elderblossom, taking things back into old familiar Mamouche territory, in a flowery, herbaceous and somewhat ‘cheesy’ way (cheesy being positive here – and typical for elderblossom-flavoured beers in general). Woody tannins and a subordinate bittering touch of old hops do the rest – but the finish remains juicy, floral and ‘fresh’. A very odd but happy ‘accident’ (if it was indeed an accident) which actually works wonderfully – the boldness of the pepper does not obliterate the elderblossom completely (though it does dominate orthonasally) and the pepperiness and floweriness actually work very well together, with a pungent, bright, ‘spring-like’ effect. If this is what happens when Cantillon makes a mistake, then they can mistakes every day as far as I am concerned – in fact, maybe they should consider releasing this pepper-elderblossom blend as an entirely new lambic altogether, on a more regular base…

8.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

Bottle for Zwanze 2024 shared with Sjoerd. Slight hazy golden. This is supposed to have the Pink Pepper Zwanze blended in. And yeah, I get a ton of Pink Pepper up for ont, followed by a lot of elderflower, soft funk and malts. Yeah this is really different from the 2023 we just had. Really good.

8.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5

Bottle, 750 ml at the brewery. Cloudy golden with medium white head. Beautiful black pepper and eldeflower, smooth with pleasant tartness. Almost juicy. Loved the pepper twist.