Mirakel
(has 3 batches)

De Ranke has been instrumental as a forerunner of the new craft beer movement in Belgium and has experimented with sour beer styles since 2000, when De Ranke Kriek was successfully launched; now they have taken the logic one step further and present this blend of different ages of something they refer to as 'De Ranke lambiek', not sold by itself, but produced especially for this blend, which then logically is named 'De Ranke Geuze'. The 'lambic' in question is, like their Vieille Provision, aged and naturally (bacterially) soured in oak casks, but the malt bill contains the same grains in the same proportions as actual lambic and actual lambic is also added to it, to boost the lambic character. The end result, this so-called 'geuze', will be (limitedly) sold soon but appeared as an 'avant-première' at BXL Beerfest and I'm glad I had the chance to taste it, since I'm a huge lambic lover and am passionately interested in anything even remotely lambic-like, especially when it comes from such an established name as De Ranke. Practically no head apart from some loose, quickly popping bubbles, hazy warm 'old gold' colour with peachy hue. Aroma has a lot in common with (young) lambic indeed, sherry vinegar, fermenting plums, old lemon peel, wet hay, old moist rusk, stale white wine, bread crumbs… Estery, tart onset, gooseberry and sour grapes to a high extent with a crisp sour lemony edge, soft carb, vinous mouthfeel with wheaty-bready base dried by lactic sourness and - more so in the finish but not too explicit - woody tannins; a delicate, sherryish fruitiness lingers in a dry, tart, earthy, long finish. Credible and tasty enough as a very lambic-like sour ale, but it remains to be seen what this becomes when bottled and more matured; with this first sample and De Ranke's quality standard in mind, I am very confident that a new classic will be born soon, even if I would personally hesitate to explicitly call it a 'geuze'...

Thanks to the RB crew for sharing! Sampled draft @ BXLBeerFest 2018! 750 ml sampled. De Ranke lambiek / Boon / little bit Girardin . Darker orange with no head. Low metallic orange peel rustic Boon lambiek, nice sweet orange peel, medicinal grapefruit peel. Sweet low orange peel, grapefruit, sweetish grapefruit, low medicinal oak, sweet oilay,;.. 100 % flat oily, needs more time but already good stuff. Yeah too flat & young.