Project Alambic 1 - Whisky Geuze
De Cort in Pepingen, Flemish Brabant, Belgium 🇧🇪
Lambic Style - Gueuze Special|
Score
7.32
|
|
Brewed, aged & bottle conditioned in Pepingen, Pajottenland
Since 2014 we're distilling malt whisky at our independent craft distillery in Pepingen, between the hills of the Pajottenland region. In 2021 we started brewing lambic and as a distillery we call it Project Alambic. Discover this unique geuze that we matured on our freshly dumped single malt whisky barrels. This is not just whisky infused.
Sign up to add a tick or review
Maakun (16718) reviewed Project Alambic 1 - Whisky Geuze from De Cort 3 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle shared with Thijs. Slight gusher. Hazy light golden with short lasting head. Sweet lemon, wheat, light funk, oft whisky, bread crust, toffee, loght nuts. Medium sweet and sour. Over medium bodied. Not a typical geuze, but it's quite nice.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
750mL bottle at DHVL. Pours blonde with a slight haze and a white head. Musty barrels and whiskey on the nose. Flavour is tart, some must from the barrels, a bit of heat from the whiskey. Has an apple brandy quality that I'm not a huge fan of, but this is still very nice.
mcberko (47797) reviewed Project Alambic 1 - Whisky Geuze from De Cort 11 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
750mL bottle at DHVL, pours a clear pale golden with a small white head. Aroma has gently peated whiskey barrels, moderate funk, and some leathery notes. Flavour is much the same, with subtle peated whiskey barrels, moderate funk, and old leather. Peated, leathery, and funky finish. Very good.
Alengrin (11675) reviewed Project Alambic 1 - Whisky Geuze from De Cort 1 year ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Geuze blended with lambics that were matured in whisky barrels - with a complex backstory: De Cort is actually a distillery (of high quality, from what I heard) located in a business site in Pepingen in the Pajottenland region since 2014, but in 2021 decided to join forces with the lambic world and produce this 'whisky geuze'. The lambic was brewed in the same site, but by Brouwerij van 't Pajottenland, which has since then moved to a new site in Gooik (about four miles north) and continues to operate there under its original name Sako, with their own Adelaar brand of lambics. I guess it remains a bit unclear as to who exactly brewed the lambic that went into this whisky geuze, the Sako people or the De Cort people, but an internal source revealed to me today that it was indeed the Sako people, who at the time had their Pajottenland brewery in the same location - hence the placement of this geuze under Pajottenland. Some forceful gushing upon removing the cork but only briefly so - the spouting spontaneously stopped after a couple of seconds. Fizzing, egg-white, loose, rather thin head, opening instantly and leaving a thin rim, but even this rim eventually disappears. Misty yellow blonde robe with somewhat khaki tinge, looking paler than I am used to from the genre; visual sparkling is limited to tiny bubbles, almost invisible to the naked eye, yet numerous and present everywhere. Aroma of rather pronounced vanillin from oak wood and Speyside style whisky, old Reinette apples, freshly cut nettles, sugared (!) lemon juice and a bit of dried lemon peel, yellow plum, grape skin, lilies, fermenting pear juice, old dry sherry, petrichor and something - excusez le mot - fart-like initially pushing through here and there (fortunately very vaguely so and completely vanishing after a while). Sweetish onset (very odd for a geuze) with softly tart edges, too 'mals' as it were, with yellow-fruity notes of oldschool storage apples, yellow plum and white grape, surrounded by this cooked gooseberry-like sour edge, yet, as said, remaining very mals and nowhere really acquiring that lemony streak that makes a typical geuze so refreshing. Carbonation is active but very fine-bubbled and in that sense perhaps a tad too slow for the style; mouthfeel is smooth and full, with a drying effect of a 'deep' lactic tartness being noticeable all the way through, albeit again in a very 'malse' way. Clear white-breadiness under ongoing sweetish and tart yellow fruit, vinous with a white grape-like association persisting, meeting woody tannins in the end as well as that whisky, which has a more drying effect than the wood and the lactic acid combined, even though a true 'alcohol heat' fortunately remains absent. Earthy, 'dusty', moderately funky and old sherry-like aromas rise up retronasally, along with a kind of minerally aspect (petrichor); the whisky accentuates the vanillin in the oak, which is more prominent here than in any other geuze I had. Altogether enjoyable, but a bit crude and unrefined - and very odd if seen like a true geuze, this feels more like some whisky barrel aged blonde sour ale, with a much softer character, less 'volatile' acids, a much sweeter kind of fruitiness and less complexity. This needs a lot of work, Angerik did this concept much better in their first Kluysbosch if you ask me; it does not even look, feel, smell or taste like a credible geuze, though like I mentioned, the whole remains interesting enough to be entertaining and palatable. One of these weird first Sako-related lambic try-outs I guess, but the question remains whether it was them (as Pajottenland) or De Cort who actually performed the brewing and blending; maybe it was a combination of both, but in any case, if we see other lambics by De Cort appear (under this 'Project Alambic' umbrella), then we will know for sure that De Cort deserves its own entry here as a real brewery...
tderoeck (22946) reviewed Project Alambic 1 - Whisky Geuze from De Cort 1 year ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
5/V/24 - 75cl bottle @ Toer de Geuze, BB: 14/IX/34, bottle N°323, 7.5% (2024-283) Thanks to all for sharing today’s beers!
Cloudy pale blond to yellow beer, big solid creamy white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: fruity, juicy, apples, some vanilla, citrus, grapefruit, nice! MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice, gentle acidity, herbal, very minty, earthy touch, spicy, bitter, some tannins. Aftertaste: fruity, a little sweet, sourish, bitter touch, a bit hoppy maybe, tannins, orange peel, a little oxidized, some walnut, alcohol burn.