Tap. Dark brown color with white head. Aroma is roasted, ash, nice funk too. Taste is the same, nice balance, good funk and roast at the same time. Now this is dark sour done right!

18/IV/22 - on tap @ l’Ermitage (Brussels), BB: n/a (2022-374)

Clear black beer, small creamy beige head, a little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: nice roast, some coffee, dark chocolate, very malty. MF: lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: soft acidity, good roast, pretty bitter, dry, some tannins, mouth puckering acidity after that. Aftertaste: refreshing, soft roast, dry, coffee, malty, decent one.

Tap at L'Ermitage. Dark brown. Coffee, earthy, dead leaves, soft funk, dry wood, berries. Medium sweet and sour. Quite interesting, though yeah it's a dark sour...

Draught, 6% at L'Ermitage Saint-Gilles. Roasted and citric aroma. Black colour. Small light brown head. The flavour is citric, funky, roasted with a good fruity hoppiness. Works fairly well even though I usually do not like sour black beers.

Draft @ Moeder Lambic Fontainas.
Jean's side gig - elusive beers available during Cantillon events at selected Brussels locations.
Seems this version is using some DLS wort with a blend of Cantillon lambic.
Dorée sur un léger voile, col blanc épais.
Arôme offre de suite des effluves de funk qui se ressentent sans même porter le verre au nez.
Pointe boisée - rappel de verger pommier - vibrant avec un effet de cidre brut.
Palais est sec pointe de funk, fine acidité avec une fraîcheur marquée en bouche et une petite impression de pomme pressée.
Sec avec un retour de lambic - cave - grenier, pointe citrique, petite touche bready au niveau du moût. Pointe d'amertume noble houblonnée en retrait et fin de bouche.

The first emanation of a new ‘little side project’ by Cantillon’s Jean Van Roy, a project called “Brasserie des 4 Vents”, in which Cantillon lambic is used in combination with wort of other breweries’ beers. There has been a first attempt already with Zinnebîr wort from de la Senne and this is the second, with Noire du Midi wort from Nanobrasserie de l’Ermitage; this blend, containing 20% old Cantillon lambic, has then refermented and matured in wooden casks for 9 months. Tasted from tap at Ermitage’s premises during the launch, not coincidentally on Zwanze Day. Bubbly, open, large-bubbled, yellowish beige ring, disappearing quite quickly, black robe with hazy ochre-brown edges. Aroma of cold black coffee and coffee grounds, caramel, cold tea, old sweat, dry red wine, soaking wet old wood, sweet ripe blackberries, walnut, sherry vinegar, dead tree leaves on a damp forest floor. Fruity-estery onset, blackberry, sour cherry, red apple, fizzy but refined carbonation, full body; nutty maltiness with bitter toasted edge, going into coffeeish roastedness towards the end with an ongoing drying sour effect, lingering ‘dark sour’ fruitiness, woody tannins and lots of yeasty earthiness, a bit ‘dirty’ and tangy in the end with lingering leafy and berry-like impressions. Conceptually comparable with Ermitage’s Chai V.2 but it is very clear that in this case, the wort of Noire du Midi was used and has given the time to ferment and mature together with the lambic; where in Chai V.2 I still had the feeling that it was a blend of two distinct beers that did not match very well, in this one the – very different – basic character of both has become beautifully intertwined; both form one inseparable whole, with much more balance and ‘peace’ within. The flavours are blended here, and blended in a very interesting, tasteful way. Curious to see which other gems this new project will spawn.