8 3 8 4 17Bottle shared at Foeders, Amsterdam. Hazy golden with a big white head. Aroma of funk, damp cellar, mineral notes, damp, citrus, cobwebs and tart fruit. Flavour is above light sweet and moderate sour. Medium bodied with light carbonation.

Lambiek Fabriek's second commercial product, an 'improved' version of their Brett-Elle debut, with a different selection of lambics that were deemed to be of exceptional quality; the weighted average of the lambics used is about one and a half year, but it contains no three year old lambic (yet), so the legal definition of 'oude geuze' is still not applicable - but of course it will be only a matter of time, and not a whole lot of time, before Lambiek Fabriek can present their first 'true' oude geuze. The geuze blenders probably will not agree, but to me any blend of lambics in a bottle should and can be referred to as 'geuze' - but who am I to disagree with the legislator (or HORAL for that matter). Anyway: this one was presented to the public at BXL Beerfest, where the organisers incorrectly communicated the product's name as 'Spontan-Elle' - but the correct name is certainly 'Fontan-Elle', with the specification 'Young & Wild' referring to the lack of three year old lambic on the one hand, and the highly effervescent character on the other hand. I would like to thank Jo Panneels, the founder of Lambiek Fabriek, for alerting me about the latter: indeed this bottle was under high pressure, and apart from a loud bang when removing the cork (sitting under a crown cap rather than a muselet), I was met with an initially quite forceful amount of gushing as well. Luckily this gushing stopped quickly, so losses were reduced to probably less than a centilitre or so - but be prepared when you open one of these. Irregularly shaped and quickly opening, yet densely structured, eggshell-white foam, remaining stable as a very firm, crescent moon-shaped head and rags and patches of tightly clinging foam on the edge of the glass; immediately clouded, warm pale peach blonde robe, seemingly a tad darker than Brett-Elle, with some dots of yeast sinking to the bottom of the glass. Aroma of white currant straight from the bush, green gooseberries, dusty blanket, grass silage, wet clay, rotting oranges, wood sorrel leaves, summer pasture, quite outspoken 'sweaty' Brettanomyces and - when pouring more beer into the glass - a whiff of slurry pit, very unpleasant but subtle and, more importantly, fading into thin air after a few seconds so I will not take this into account when rating the beer's aroma. Very crisp onset indeed, with a lot of 'cristalline' effervescence, but in an elegant, graceful way as is fit for the style, over a mild but effective 'green' sourness of unripe gooseberries and sour apples - with just a touch of peachy sweetishness hidden within, balancing it all out. This (lactic) sourness dries the palate but in a gentle way, with the green fruit notes fully moving onwards over a lean, slender wheat backbone; drying wood tannins in the finish, clearly more so than in Brett-Elle, as well as more outspoken, sweaty and damp hay-ish 'Brett funkiness'. Ends with an important, yet late and 'deeply buried' earthy bitter note of old hops, but even then that cheerful fruity crispness remains as bright as in the onset - resulting in quite a summery, 'happy', light-footed geuze, of the kind one could drink gallons of on a warm Indian summer's day. Indeed a bit better bodied and more 'outspoken' than Brett-Elle - of which I already wrote on this site, close to a year ago, that it was on the right track in terms of flavour profile. This one takes the next step on that same track and even if still young and unexperienced, it begins to show a bit more maturity and depth than its sibling - making me hopeful for the future of this producer, if the 'cultural climate' for lambic remains as favourable as it is today. Cheers Jo!

Imported from my RateBeer account as Lambiek Fabriek Fontan-Elle (by Lambiek Fabriek):
Aroma: 10/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 16/20, MyTotalScore: 4.2/5

25/VIII/18 - sample @ BXL Beer Festival - BB: n/a (2018-1111) Thanks to the Belgian and Dutch Ratebeer crews for sharing today's beers!

Pretty cloudy orange beer, creamy fluffy off-white head, unstable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lovely, nice brett notes, bit peppery and spicy, really authentic smell. I like it! MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty acidic, lemony, fruity, nice stuff! Aftertaste: dry, fruity, orange peel, good one!

Duzo bardziej dzikie i kwasne, agresywne niz ich gueuze, ale baardzo smaczne, 3.9