Wow, and I mean wow. I've been pretty lucky lately picking up some truly oustanding Belgian ales. Nice looking beer, (I used a fluted pilsner for this, started out fairly cool around 45 deg, finished it before it hit 55 deg). Appearance is rather complex, showing different colors from different angles and lighting conditions. Mainly, it was a pure amber that glowed with a cherry red tone (yes I believe it did glow). The head was full and fizzy like champagne, and was tinted pink. Lively effervescence rising through the beer. Aroma was intense and appetizing, with sour cherry, musty possibly horseblanket or leather notes. Flavor was equally intense but the carbonation carried it down nicely. Tart cherry with a dry puckering finish, with an earthy funkiness providing contrast and balance. No bitterness, and it works - it finishes like champagne, dry and a little tart with little aftertaste. I never thought I'd be doing this with a fruit beer, but I loved this beer and can't think of a thing that should be changed about it, so....a 5 it is.

Sampled draught at Akkurat, Stockholm, Sweden.
My second beer at Akkurat's lambic festival (after a godly 14 y/o Eylenbosch Frambozen...). Poured deep golden and slightly hazy. Barnyardy aroma, but without the typical acidity usually associated with unblended lambic. The flavour is complex with notes of blue cheese and grass and it is surprisingly sweet and mild. Some saltiness in a finish domited by stale hop bitterness. Perhaps my one and only chance to sample this beer :-(
Ha, I was wrong :-) They had a second barrel of it. This seemed younger and was strikingly hoppy. Also it was more tart and with distinctive sharp mouthfeel and a really bitter finish.

Aged sample. Colour is orange-pink-red (typical for Vandervelden, a little less fruit & colour); very little rosy-white head. Nose gives sherry and cherries. Typical woody-bitterish notes. Flowery, and vineous alike. Taste: restrained fruit flavour, cherries, but also redcurrant. Very fine, multiple acids, they're all there. There is also a taste as from fresh coriandre, not the seeds, but the leaf. The underlying lambic is characterised by a slight bitterish (vegetable) tendence. Quite light-bodied, refreshing. In the aftertaste, all the above fade away. At the end of the bottle, one gets impression of fresh fruit-juice. This IS the Oud Beersel to me, always a bit different from the rest: slightly bitterish, restrained - but REAL - fruit, honest. GREAT. The last years were slightly more mainstream.

Colour: orangey-yellow. Gushing, very thick, yellowish head, stable. Nose of nail-varnish, lime, slight "horseblanket"; later green apples and malonate. Flavour like of honey without sweetness, flowery (nectar?). Very little acids, some wet wood or cardboard. Some sulphur, but restrained, also a bit of tannins. No new aftertaste, mouthfeel is a bit, unexpected, watery. Oud Beersel closed, about 2-3 months ago. The beers are still readily available. The whole community of lambic-worshippers is praying for a miracle of resurrection.

Cloudy red; woody, big brett, leather. Very tart. Fruity - wonderfully balanced. I thought I'd successfully conceptualized the oude gueuzes and krieks of this world, but it's all moot anyway because they're all great. They're all artisanal classics of the beer world, and I love each and every one of them.

Cloudy ruby red color, beautiful thick pinkish foam. Cherry aroma, oak-conditioned, muffy. Cherry taste, very sour, more gueuze-like than kriek. But you can definitely taste the 'oldness' of the kriek.

2024-03-08, corked bottle, vintage 2021, 2 years old, bottled 21/10/2021, 8-5-8-3-16=40
Hazy, dark blond colour. The aroma is a bit funky, also slightly cheesy, more evident when opening; citrus fruits appear later, grapefruit. It's bone dry, and the acidity is balanced; it has some funky character, strong Brett, it doesn't have the strong barnyard character of other Lambics, it's clearly more fruity than the average; if anything, I strangely find the finish to cut short, quite quickly.
Moderate complexity, but balanced, very enjoyable.

2002-08-15, bottle, 8-5-7-4-15=39

Clear red. Nice fruity aroma. Acidic, tart. Complex and fresh. Good, but not as good as their gueuze.