3 Fonteinen J & J Oude Geuze Roze

Formerly brewed at 3 Fonteinen
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Beersel, Belgium

(Bottle 75 cl) Courtesy of yespr. Pours a hazy golden with a small, off-white head. Sharp, complex Brett nose. Medium body, sharp - yet also delicate and complex - Brett accents. The finish is very dry with even some bitterness showing in between the massive acidity. Still I find this smoother and more subtle than the Blauw version. 280907

Bottle. Nice head with short duration. Color is golden. Aroma and taste are malt and lactose acid. Decent carbonation.

Bottle. 2003 version. Frothy white good mostly lasting head. Yellow colour. very sour and powerfull aroma. Really sour flavor. Long powerfull finish but way too sour in a bad acetic way. Oily palate.

Aroma/Malty-light, Appearance Head/Initial-small, Head/Color white, Body/Hue-medium, Initial Flavor-sour, Finish Flavor-sour, Palate/Body-light Palate/texture-wa good beer

2003. Almost a perfect appearance, certainly much closer to a five than a four, thus the scoring. Orange/amber/peach body, hazy, with a super creamy, thick white head that’s slowly but not fully diminishing. the remaining bubbles form intracate star-shaped patterns that skim the surface, very pretty and highly unusual. the aroma contains heavy acidic notes of persuasions of many different fruits, though mostly lemon and lesser orange. Sugars are a contrast to the norm and add a piquant complexity. forward moving, gripping brettanomyces and wild yeasts are stir-crazy and unusual as well. Barnyard scents emerge fully as room temperature is nearing, hay and cobwebs and must and horseblanket all gripping and raw. This is truly an arresting nose, a challenging inhalation each time. Toasted oak is the formation at the central oart of this nose and provides the backbone off of which each other aromatic compound plays. Malt character is light, alcohol is undetectable. So far it’s very nice but it isn’t as captivating or as pleasant a blend as its counterpart, Blauw. In the flavor, an avant-garde, driving brett tartness provides a feeling of jagged edges, the extensions of which contain sugary, tooth-enamel-stripping yeast and acids, moderately to very high sourness, now lightly noticeable alcohol and a dwindling fruit conglomeration. Moderate bitterness surprises and grows with each sip. Finishes acidic with herbal hints and fruit lingering, tartness sticking around and bubbling up for a great while. The mouthfeel is prickly, tannic, soft, lightly but adequately carbonated(more would be too much for the style) and light-medium to medium bodied. This is not as good as Blauw; it’s just not as intriguing a blend. It is still one of the better lambics I’ve had the pleasure of sampling.

This is tough, having just rated a Bell Vue Selection Lambic. This beer looks exactly what a gueze should look like, at least in my convoluted reality. The color is a glowing and warm burnt orange. Aroma is direct, wood and funk, there are backnotes of blanket and fresh cut hay. Flavor is refined, with a wood like bitterness. A very focused flavor. Another incredible beer.

Bottled. Courtesy of MesAndSim at RBESG. Cloudy amber collour with lively head. Dry, appley, horseblanket aroma with acidity. Very pleasantly dry and wheaty, with a touch of wood, without being to acidic. 3 Fonteinen is often a favourite, with perfect balance with that balanced acidity.

Birthday Beer #1. 750mL bottle split with artusory, courtesy of fonefan. Thanks, Jan! Pours a bright, medium orange color at first (hazier later on); effervescent and mildly hazy; fluffy off-white head that hangs around for a good while; patchy lacing with what’s left. Dense, fruit-laden tart aroma; definitely mouthwatering and funky, but reserved in these respects; the sourness is balanced nicely with a dense, citrus / tropical fruit and toasty oak core. Significant fruit character. Pleasant, medium levels of acidity and sourness upfront; dense tart citrus and tropical fruit core, but without showing any residual sweetness; quite dry, dense funkiness; pillowy, large-bubbled carbonation that keeps the palate wide awake. Lengthy, citrus-dominated finish; dry, with plenty of lingering funk and lemon zest. Excellent.