7

Nice newcomer!

8

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

Sampled thanks to Kurt @ Belgium in a Box. Hazy yellow golden color, small white head. Aroma is quite citrussy. Flavor is citrussy and balanced sour-tart. I like it, not the sharp sourness you sometimes get. Well done.

8

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

(21.10.2017) Big thanks to Mathieu87! 375 ml. bottle sampled. Orange, bright, big white bubbles. Nose is wonderful, very delicate, delicate lambiek funk but nothing raw or farm, crisp subtle, mellow with big juicy neutral almost bit sweet green apple. Very delicate beer, lemon but nothing sour, soft round lambiek funk, nothing harsh, no raw barn, faint pepper, almost the idea of mineral, soft & that huge green apple. Familiar as well as something completely different. Really great beer but it needs bit more body, it is too light bodied it feels bit lacking which the Belgoo lambiek which I tried at 4 months wasn’t & I am really shocked at how different it is from the Belgoo lambiek which I tried, I basically fail to find it. it needs more age or more body but this is an amazing start, better than I had hoped. (17.10.2018) 2018 Vinae. Way worse, dirty watery lemon, rotting water, thin, lemon, spoiled, dirty water, poor. Going fro 4.4 to 4 now for an average score.

6.8

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

Pours bit unclear blonde, no real head. Smell is fruity, doughy, wet wood. Taste is full, very mild, wet wood, decent acidity. Not sharp at all. Not bad. I do have questions about this being a true oude geuze though....

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

It is very rare that a new lambic brewery is set up - in fact, I never saw this happen before during my lifetime, at least not within Belgian tradition. This one is made by two lambic afficionados who originally had the wort prepared at nearby Belgoo and then have it inoculated and spontaneously fermented at their own premises, but as of end October, their coolship has moved to Ruisbroek as well so that all production now will take place there. Brett-Elle is their first product, officially presented to the public at the 10th anniversary party of the Belgoo brewery and made with lambic of one and (even less than) two years old - so not three and not really two either, which for Belgian legislation would not technically make it an 'oude geuze', at least not until they possess more mature lambic to add that to the blend. Opens with a soft popping sound and produces a thinnish, lightly lacing, eggshell-white, irregular head that settles as a moussy, dense ring around the edge and with a flat pattern of foam in the middle; warm peach blonde colour with slight pale orangey tinge, equally hazy from the start even with careful - proper - pouring. Aroma is fairly soft, estery-fruity and mildly funky, but in any case convincingly lambic: overripe gooseberries, old moldy lemon peel, refreshing lime zest, sour yoghurt, very old and oxidized dry white wine, haystack, fermenting sour apples, dusty attic, moist clay, faint whiff of old 'Bretty' urine which in this particular style of beer fits perfectly in the whole picture, followed by a volatile accent of mushy old potatoes when the sediment is added in the end. Tart onset, drying green plum-, fermenting old apple- and unripe gooseberry-like sourness with a sharper, very lime juice-like edge but not overly puckering, stonefruit- and grape peel-like esters with even a very vague sweetish peachy note hidden within; soft carbonation, in fact a tad too soft for a geuze - but then these bottles are obviously still way too young and I expect them to become more effervescent with a bit of age on them due to ongoing bottle conditioning. The drying sourness spreads over the palate, backed by a soapy wheat 'soil' with pleasantly bready barley notes alongside. Ends mildly funky, with the sourness persisting to dry the throat and those lovely stonefruit, fermenting apple, lime juice and gooseberry impressions lingering retronasally; some soft woodiness kicks in, remotely old dusty cupboard-like impressions even, as well as an equally soft echo of earthy 'old' hops, but low in bitterness. The wheaty soapiness, quite pronounced in this one, lingers as well. Well, here we are, celebrating the birth of a new lambic baby - as far as I'm concerned, there cannot be enough lambic around so I hope this project kicks off and will produce more lambic variations in the future. Technically I guess these guys are somewhere in between a true lambic brewery and a 'geuzestekerij' but the bottom line is that they have passion and seem to know what they are doing. Granted, this Brett-Elle (in this form at least) is too young and very obviously lacks the depth and 'nobility' normally provided by old lambic, but for a first attempt at a genuinely difficult style of beer, this is promising to say the least. One to watch, I will most certainly follow their activities with great interest. Have a 4/5 by means of encouragement - and of course because I sincerely enjoyed drinking this. Hail lambic!

7.5

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

Thanks! Sampled draft @ Swafff 2017! Spontaneously fermented, closed fermentation tank, added air & not open fermentation, similar to Mort Subite. For the purists yes it is in the right area. 4 months old now. Didn’t enquire about the malt bill but it seems totally different from your usual lambiek. Murky orange amber, far darker than you would expect with no head. Nose is dirty barn funk, sour, vinegar, lots of actual rotting bread malt. Taste is rotting bread malt upfrotn, vinegar, sour spoiled bread, almost alcohol, rotting malt, grain,... Finish is quite acidic harsh. Surprisingly thick malt body. Totally different from what you would expect within the style, heavy malt body, actual rotting bread profile, it fades a bit as you get more used to it, quite sour,... Interesting & what is a very young age for this. Not your conventional lambiek, very interesting stuff even if purist will revolt at this.