Bottle at ZBF, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium: Gueuze with an great gueuze bite, hazy orange and subtile sourness in the back.

It happens only extremely rarely that Girardin, one of the traditional lambic world’s most respected names, comes up with something new, but apparently they did deem the 60th birthday of Paul Girardin important enough to come up with this limited blend, consisting of only three year old lambics – oddly, because according to the technical specifications defined by Belgian law, that means it does not even qualify as an ‘oude’ geuze at all… Comes only in numbered jeroboam bottles, one of which was very generously shared by Bart A. on Proevertjesdag at his place. Snow white, quickly thinning and opening, bubbly to loosely moussey ring of foam on a misty, deep orange-glowing peach-golden robe. Aroma of unripe orange, dry sherry, wet oak wood, apricot, Granny Smith apple, wood sorrel, rhubarb (even slightly cooked), purple gooseberries, oxidized dry white wine, Asian plum vinegar, lemon, raw cucumber, sweat (stronger when warming up). Rich tartness and fruitiness in the onset, green plum, green apple and ripe gooseberry, even a sweetish apricot touch and something pickled gherkin-like, medium in carbonation (in any case softer than a typical geuze) but with notably full, smooth, rounded body; bready core under layers of yoghurty lactic tartness, sour grape-like vinosity and sweet-sour stonefruit effects, with a woody undertone and generally ‘malse’ character. A hop bitter note appears very late in the picture – even only after swallowing, in fact – so that everything remains gloriously estery, radiantly sour-fruity and vinous, with just enough Bretty funkiness in the background to maintain complexity and depth. Girardin throughout: elegant, deep, rich, vinous and vibrant, no less so than their classic black label geuze; only this modest and ‘silent’ producer could come up with something this majestic whilst using lambics of all the same age. This alone only underlines their skill and experience. Not sure if I could have finished the jeroboam all by myself, but the drinkability in this one was nevertheless huge, too.

7/XII/24 - 300cl bottle (Jeroboam) @ the Big Bottles Tasting / Proevertjesdag (Oudenburg), BB: n/a, 2021 vintage “Paul” (2024-1263) Thanks to Bart for sharing the bottle!

Clear orange beer, small creamy off-white head, stable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: nice, earthy, funky, lots of brett, woody, complex, lovely smell! MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: very fruity, dry, bitter, woody, some tannins, more bitterness, complex. Aftertaste: nice acidity, fruity, citrus notes, bitter, woody, very nice, bitter, earthy, wet forest floor, brett, lemony, very nice stuff, lovely geuze!

Side pull In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst 2024-11-10 Brussels
AR: dry nice kriek, cherry yoghurt
AP: dark ruby in color
F: dry nice kriek, cherry yoghurt

Jeroboam at Cafe de Koffer shared with the pub crawlers of the pre-Wild Festival Groningen event. Crystal clear bright golden color, small white head. Aroma of light funk and hay. Taste is softly sour funky overripe summer fruit. Great experience and tasty beer.