4/IV/25 - on tap @ DOK Brewing (Gent), BB: n/a (2025-315)

Clear orange red beer, small creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: nice, clean lambic smell, sourish impression, a hint of strawberries indeed. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: sourish start, nice, clean acidity, brett, lemony, some strawberries, pleasant fruited lambic! Aftertaste: lemony, fruity, some strawberries, pleasant, funky, a bit peppery, nice one!

75cl bottle (bottled: 10 24 so BBF: 10 44) from Het Huis van de Geuze webshop.
F: thin, white, quick gone.
C: pale gold, light on the beginning and more hazy at the end of the bottle.
A: woody, gooseberries, grapes, peach, funky, barnyard, citrus.
T: nice sour fruity, brett, citrus, lemon, gooseberries, peach, leather, woody, nice puckering effect, medium carbonation, very good as I expected, fully enjoyed.

Bottle En Öl o Whiskeymässa 2024, 2024-04-19 Göteborg
AR: sour, tart, dark spicy, grapes, black berries
AP: purple body pinkish head fizzy
F: our, tart, dark spicy, grapes, black berries

New grape lambic by Lambiek Fabriek, made with Belgium-grown Malvasia grapes, a group of varieties rather than one single variety, typically used in fortified wines because of their inherent sweetness. Malvasia grapes were used in lambic as early as 2002 when 3 Fonteinen created its legendary Malvasia Rosso, but they have only very rarely shown up in the beer world since (Cantillon did a grape lambic for Pasta Madre once containing Malvasia, but comined with other varieties, I believe). Thickly moussey, somewhat foamy and irregular, egg-white, crackling head retaining well but eventually slowly diminishing over a hazy apricot blonde robe with tangerine-orangey glow. Aroma of sour white grapes and must, wild peaches, wet wood, grape seeds, kumquat, even juice from a less-than-ripe orange, 'Bretty' urine, raw rhubarb, a whiff of Pineau somewhere, ripe gooseberries, young birch leaves, oxidized cava, grass, petrichor, wood sorrel, increasing freshly fermented farmland further into the bottle. Crisp, brightly fruity onset, small sour(ish) grapes galore - but combining with the lemony side of the lambic, resulting in a very citrusy effect, in between orange and lemon somewhere (Meyer lemon could perhaps pinpoint it) with green apple and sour berry layers underneath; a subtle minerality runs through the whole, propelled by the expected lively, cava-like effervescence. Rounded body, vinous, with a soft breadiness deeply soaked in lactic and lemony acids along with the Malvasia grapes' natural sours, but also their sugars, providing a bit of counterbalance and keeping things varied and entertaining. As usual with this producer, quite a bit of Brett funkiness lurks around the corner, with its typical 'animalistic' effects of damp hay, wet leather and even, ever so briefly, a whiff of aged pecorino romano - yet never stands in the way of this bright, persistently citrusy, 'sunny' sour-fruitiness, which shines and shines till the last drop. Woody tannins help the grapes' skins and seeds to provide dryness - the rest of that being taken care of by the sours - but the juiciness of the grapes keeps everything on the supple, vinous, highly drinkable side. Another great fruit lambic by this lambic factory - funky and 'barnyard-y' enough for the lambic afficionado, but also very radiant, succulent and cheerful. Lovely.