9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 10
The site tells me Hanssens oude gueuze is lacking in my portfolio. Let's remedy this fast. Sample fairly aged. Let's say, from before Sidi's time. Good carbonation, white head but immediately gone. Fully hazy orange-amber. Very outspoken horseblanket and citrus in the nose. Grapefruit peel, lactic acid, wet oak. Tart but not really sour. Great! Just a lactic-lemony rind around a full mouthfeel - hinting at impossible maltsweet. Aroma's of "speculoos", wood, tannine. Sharper finish. Refreshing, but not light bodied. Great as expected. Hanssens used to be notorious for the use of saccharine in their kriek - no trace of that here. Everything tastes natural, complexity is overwhelming. Quintessential gueuze from the last of the true blenders.
Tried
on 19 Jul 2003
at 01:53
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
I was sitting up in my room while I had the bottle warming, reading all of the stories about how people get hit in the eye with the cork, when I heard an explosion and ran downstairs to find beer all over the table and an uncorked gueuze. I couldnt believe the cork popped when this beer was at a very cool 50 degrees. Well the point of this story is that this beer is carbonated. Too carbonated. Granted it is tolerable when it has warmed up to about 60 degrees, but it still is extremely carbonated. Orange/rust color. Slightly clouded with a bubbly head that disappears. Nice aroma of tart green apple. The intial taste is best though, with a yeasty/sour flavor, mixed with a tart green apple. There is some grassy/hay undertone and the sourness clings to the palette and back of throat. As it warms becomes more sour and reminds me of gooseberry, which is pleasant. A decent beer, but SOOO much carb. Why not just get a belgian tripel? has the yeast and some sour/bitter flavor with so much more. I suppose if you really like sour beer this is the way to go though. I need to try more gueuzes, that is for certain.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Jun 2003
at 23:09
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Yellow colour. Thick white head. Honeyish nose, very slight 'horseblanket'. Sweet, malty taste. Retronasal there's the gueuze, apple-like. The honey is there for a fraction of a moment - until... Mouthfeel is medium bodied... the aftertaste where the honey is back, this time longueish and with the character of 'honingbollen', Belgian honey-toffees. Some acid-burn, all the same. Surprising - and than again maybe not. It pulls in different directions, without final decision.
Tried
on 24 May 2003
at 23:43
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
(It might seem strange to have lambic from a non-brewer. It is however, quite normal, for the blenders to have a basic lambicblending from which they work to establish their final gueuze). Colour is pale amber. No head. Nose is wood, piney, 'horseblanket', lactic acid. Sweet taste, subdued, like a medium-sweet draught cider. Retronasal very much wood and sulphur. Dry effect, long woodiness in the aftertaste. Nice, strange, but quite pleasant sweetrest.
Tried
on 24 May 2003
at 15:37
9.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 10
Texture 10
Overall 10
Pale red colour, white-pinkish head, immediately gone. Nose gives "horseblanket", cherries, strawberries and lactic acid. Very tart taste, but there is a sweet, fruitsh bottom. Flavour & retronasal arome of sour cherries and red fruit, fruit acids and smoke. Mouthfeel is tart, dry, tannine and tingling of fuit & carbonation. Long aftertaste of fruit, sourish. Just great.
Tried
on 13 Mar 2003
at 13:15
8.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 9
Beautiful sticking yeast. Peach coloured beer, no head. Sulphur compounds in the nose, a little "horseblanket" and oak, but dominated by a fine fruitaroma, hesitating between raspberry and strawberry. Taste is strawberry -yes- but maybe because I know. Along with a lemony aroma, it results in an exotic fruit flavour, not readily touchable. Very subdued acids, but there is some acetic with warming up. Some sulphur back in the mouth and a retronasal flavour of blue cheese first, warming into less pleasing solvent. Mouthfeel is rather refreshing like carbonation would give, but due to something else as virtually no saturation. Nice (oak)wood finish; tart but not acid.
Tried
on 30 Jan 2003
at 12:41
8.8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8
Pale orange and slightly hazy. Acidic nose with just a hint of over ripe strawberries. Very fresh mouthfeel, balanced acidity and delicious strawberry flavour all the way through to the finish. A remarkable thirst quencher.
Tried
on 02 Oct 2002
at 12:18
8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 9
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Red lambic. Sweet aroma of cherries. Sour, but with some residual sweetness. Citric and vinegar; the vinegar taste develops itself before the bitter sour final, very good and long.
Tried
on 20 Dec 2001
at 19:11
8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
2022-06-29, corked half bottle, bottled 3rd week Apr 2018, 6% ABV, 9-4-8-4-17=42
2020-03-15, corked half bottle, bottled 3rd week Apr 2018, 6% ABV, 9-4-8-4-17=42
Hazy golden colour, large bubbles the head disappears quickly. Pungent aroma, lemon initially, then strong horseblanket, cat pee. Dry, with strong lemon, strong Lambic character, just moderately acidity, with a bit of wood and astringency in the finish.
This bottle is delicious.
2001-12-20, bottle, 8-4-7-3-13=35
Citrusy, woody aroma, really strong. Sour, vinegar taste, dry; some fruit flavours. Bitter-sour palate. Balanced, not oustanding, 'pure' gueuze.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Dec 2001
at 19:02
6.5/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Not actually a gueuze, Oudbeitje has some strawberry added, but the character is rather subtle. I get a smoked cheddar and salami character - a little odd for a beer you could say, but it is lambic. These guys must blend in a cheese factory.
Tried
on 24 Jun 2001
at 12:47