3 Fonteinen Beersel Lager

Unfiltered pale gold, cloudy, homogeneous and well carbonated. The head is pure white, diminishing but long-lasting. The most attractive small-bubbled, crisp carbonation and texture enhance the soft mineral aspects that pair with the hay-like pils malts to create an ultimate tool for refreshment. The perfect flavorful quaffer. Good base malt also ensures a certain roundness, medium bodied let’s say, slightly honeyed though not biscuity. It escapes the usual oiliness of many czech pils to capture the essence of fresh hops, the vibrant spiciness, highly leafy and floral, yet intense in a way that can’t but remind of citrus. An elegant creation that speaks a whole book about the no compromise approach of those 2 legendary lambic brewers. Full on quality, great ingredients, yet open-minded and creative. I think I do prefer Christoffel Blonde, but I consider this as my 2nd favorite pils for now. Competent punchy bitterness, dry and crisp. A grand hoppy beer like I enjoy them.

Lemon citrus aroma with light spring flowers, and grassy herbal notes over pleasant pils malt base. Opaque yellow-blonde body is topped by a decent, fine bubbled, white head that recedes slowly to a thin but lasting cover. It almost looks like a hefeweizen. Thick, clean pils malt flavour with pronounced bitterness and some a lemon citrus character. Huge leafy, lightly floral and somewhat sharp and spicy hop flavours. Overall there is a musty feeling to this that I quite enjoy. Medium light body with lively, if gentle effervescence that engages the tongue and cheeks. Bottle enjoyed with beerbuzzmontreal, MartinT, Olivier MTL, Rastacouere and Yowie.

I love this beer. I did not have much hope for it, but I was pleasantly surprised. Aroma is fruity esters, grain, and hops. Very grainy. Taste is grainy, sweet, slight hop backbone. Very well done

Possibly Belgium’s best lager. Based on multiple samplings from draft (at the 3 Fonteinen café) and bottled. Full gold color and luscious, sturdy, white head. Aroma has some cereal but is led by loads of floral hops in the nose. Saaz in all their Noble glory. Crisply, unapologetically bitter, with faintly sweet cereals for depth. Fairly lively mouthfeel and nice dry finish. Really an excellent lager, but like all lagers it must be drunk fresh.

Bottle. Hazy yellow golden pout with nice white head. Cereal, doughy, caramel malty aroma with hoppy and malty hints of fruit. The flavor is the same but a tad more pungent. Unbelievably good and refreshing. Medium body with fervent carbonation, but not too much. Overall: delicious and illustrates how versatile and truly appealing such an often worthless and uninteresting style (pilsener) can be. Way underrated.

Cloudy blonde pour with a thin white head. Excellent flavor of yeast, lemon and hops. Amazing flavor of yeast, lemon, pepper and hops with a dry finish. The body is light to medium with a dry mouthfeel and moderate carbonation. Spectacular, reminds me a lot of Christoffel blonde, a complex and refreshing pilsener, I want more !

On draught at the Bruxellensis festival. Outstandig yellow-golden beer with nice color variegations and with a small white head leaving a good lace. The beer is not very much carbonated but it has a lot of carater and has a perfect balans. Aroma is complex, pils malts, dry céreals, hay, wet birch wood, and a great deal of refreshing hops. This is what I call an authentic pils ! It has loads of caracter, quite lots of body, the taste of the pils malt plays a major roll and the hops are countering all this with a great hoppy bitterish refreshment. This pils is all about balans, it has body, refreshing finesse and a lot of guts.

Honey golden color, hazy, creamy head. Earthy hops, vanilla and honey in the aroma. Hoppy, oily flavor, somewhat citric. Just a touch of malt character. Thin to medium bodied. A really excellent, tasty lager, the closest a Flemish beer can get to a Bavarian Zwickel. A bit more body and this would be 4+.