6.5

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5

375mL bottle at the International Geuze & Kriek festival. Pours murky pink with a pink head. Tons of red wine vinegar here, a bit of funk on the palate. Way too acidic for me.

8.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

375mL bottle, pours a clear pale golden with a small white head. Nose is full of barnyard funk, musty leather, and some citrus. Flavour is wonderfully expressive, revealing very pronounced funk, a touch of tart citrus, and light leather. Complex, balanced, and developed. Excellent–one of the best from Hanssens I’ve had in some time.

7

Last one for this time..old and sour

8.4

Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8.5

Special edition of Hanssens’ ‘Schaarbeekse’ kriek, made with only Schaarbeekse cherries: their regular version (including that ‘Scarenbecca’ variant) uses only a portion of these elusive cherries, the rest is Kelleris (a more basic variety used in cherry lambic in general). Made for the last Toer de Geuze to date, big thanks to tderoeck for this exclusive bottle! Moussey, bubbly, pinkish, opening and soon dissolving head, misty deep ruby-glowing scarlet red robe with wine red shadings, a beautiful colour. Intense aroma of tons of ripe Schaarbeekse ‘griottes’, cooked redcurrant, purple gooseberry, raspberry vinegar, almond, even vanilla from the cherry stones (and oak), red wine vinegar, hazelnut, unsugared fruit yoghurt, wild apple, background funk (damp hay). Lots of fleshy fruitiness in the mouth, bursting with ripe sour cherries of the most generously juicy and rich kind – the effect that only Schaarbeekse ‘krieken’ can achieve. Side effects of redcurrant, red plum and rhubarb, softish carb with full, vinous body; bready backbone dried by yoghurty lactic tartness and enriched by almondy, even vanilla-like aromas from the cherry stones, ‘filled’ to the brim with cherry-wine-like juiciness and red-fruitiness, almost ‘stewed’ red fruit in the end, where tannic wood, lingering almond effects and a whiff of leathery funk add further depth. Remarkably full and juicy for Hanssens, no sign of the sometimes harsh vinegary effects, utterly rich and unctuous – this to me is one of the most beautiful Hanssens products I ever tasted.

8.2

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7

Bottle shared at InVitro. Pours a slightly opaque golden with white head. Nose is lots of funk, fruity notes, citruses, light earthy character and intense acetic acid. Taste is heavily acidic upfront, and also rather sour but then it eases up and the sip turns fruity, estery and funky and these notes last well into the finish as well. Light bodied with soft carbonation. Fun, even with the quite harsh acidic character.

7.6

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 6.5

Bottle shared at home. Pours ruby copperish with no head. Nose is leathery, earthy funk, cherries are present of course, meggybefőtt. Taste is highly acidic, some acetic acid also shows, some leather too, cherries as well. The finish is dry and acidic, the body is light and the carbonation is flat.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Very hazy orange pour, with no head, the beer is flat. There is a faint strawberry aroma, its subtle, but i can pick it out. The horse blanket, is upfront, and the sourness and tartness is way over the top. This rivals. Some staight up gueuzes ive had. The sourness is incredible, i love it. The fruits are lost past the aroma which is a shame.

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

definetly has that barnyard lambic smell.
pour a deep ruby red with a little pink head. Not much depth in the flavour though, i can detect some cherry in there, but the sourness is quite overpowering. The sourness is definetly taking away from the cherries.

8.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 9

With that whole lambic revival we have seen in recent years, accelerated through social media but of course instigated by the global craft beer movement, it has often struck me how the household name of Hanssens - blending geuze for more than a century now - always seemed to fall a bit off the wagon, mostly because their lambics had become increasingly acetic over the years; this has apparently not passed them by, as they now present this renewed version of their classic geuze, made with lambic from new barrels in an attempt to reduce this sharp acidity and return to the original taste. I was eager to taste this one, as I keep fond memories of Hanssens' geuze the way it was about two decades ago: it was not nearly as acetic back then as it had become in recent years and distinguished itself with its typical heavy Hanssens funkiness, making it one of my favourites in the genre back then. I had the chance to taste a twenty year old bottle last summer - thanks Vincent - and without any signs of being tattered by time, it brought me back to those wonderful early years of exploring geuze (and beer in general) around the turn of the century. See if this 'new caveau' edition manages to do the same. Medium thick, snow white, tightly knit, regular, dot-lacing, slowly opening -but otherwise very stable head on an initially near clear, warm old golden robe with pale apricot tinge and thin strings of sparkling here and there, gradually turning increasingly misty with the sediment creeping in. Aroma of crabapples, decayed wood (in a good way), wet leather, old abbey cheese rind, freshly picked cranberries, sour grapes, wild peaches, green plums, dried mushrooms, old furniture, hints of musty cellar, old oxidised sparkling wine, minerals, damp earth, forest weeds, stale sweat, matured horse meat and something oddly but very faintly 'minty' lurking deep in the background. Dry yet lively onset, lots of green apple, green plum and green gooseberry with a lime-like edge but also a softer peachy touch deep within, sharply carbonated in a cava-like way with a smooth, somewhat 'greasy' mouthfeel, 'heavier' than average for the style as has already been mentioned below; a rounded bready core lies buried under thick lactic acidity (in a kefir- and sour fruit-like way), ongoing esters and increasing Bretty funkiness, bringing retronasal sweat, forest mushrooms and barnyard into the game - in a way that has always been very typically Hanssens. Drying woody tannins and an underlying, late but in the end very noticeable old hop bitterness do the rest - while a complex, citric, green apple- and plum-like fruitiness lingers beyond. I can only conclude that Sidy and John have achieved what they set out to do: this is indeed, from what I remember (it has been many years after all and my palate doubtlessly has changed a lot since then), back to the roots, with all that smoothness, oiliness and outspoken funkiness Hanssens' geuze possessed two decades ago. Very distinct and characteful already - and I read that meanwhile they are already working on an even further improved version, which I am already excited about now. And if this is the new Hanssens house style, then I cannot wait to see what will happen with their fruit lambics too - I could write another two pages about how fabulously funky and greasy their Oude Kriek was at the time... The top of the lambic hype - and craft beer hype in general - may lie behind us by now, so they came up rather late with this improvement, but who cares: more for the dedicated lambic lovers who did stick around, then.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Cloudy deep deep yellow to orange with a small head. Dominant raspberries on nose along with funk, citric acid, vinegar. Taste: pretty dry. Funk, lemon, less raspbriies. Heavy sour. Good. Not as good as their Krieks though.