3 Fonteinen Millennium Geuze

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

Serve in Flute, Stem glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Like most traditional Gueuze and like Most Drie Fonteinen, this is pretty damn good stuff but compared to Drie Fonteinen’s 50th Anniversary Gueuze, which was consumed earlier in the day, it was clearly obvious that this was the lesser of the two. Hazy Nectarine. Aroma of lambic funk, grapefruit, horseblanket, wet oak and mold. In taste, very sour, as expected, more sour than their standard Gueuze and more sour than the 50th. Notes of grapefruit, lemon, horsetail, flies, shoe polish and leather. Fizzy, bursting bubbles on the palate. A good Gueuze.

Head is initially huge, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy dark yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), moderately yeasty (barnyard, horseblanket, cobwebs), with notes of lemon, hay, flowers, wood. Flavor is moderately sweet, heavily acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, heavily acidic, lightly bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively to fizzy carbonation. Great appearance, and a very funky aroma...very good, but not among the top five I’ve had. Much thanks to Nick for sharing a sample of this ultra-rare brew!

UPDATED: JUN 12, 2006 Bottled. "Last one at Kulminator" or so I was told. HUGE bubbly champagne-like tanned head. Body is a gorgeous amber. Nose is a wealth of woody, barnyard and damp basement notes. Faint sweat and leather. Taste is light sour fruit, more wood, some papery or cardboard notes, musty old books, some sweat and dank basement. Body is champagney and very effervescent with mild acidity and tartness. Finishes with more sour fruit notes, albeit milder, and more wood with an odd grainy flavor, wet paper, and a damp basement floor. Awesome stuff! Too bad it’s so rare!

GHBF: Jaymobrown #1000 rating tasting...The visual is very cloudy golden hue with a small head. The aroma has a major sour overtone, tart and fruity, funky aged cheese and horseblanket yeast ester cascade into the room, way cool! The taste starts bitter and sour as expected with a lemony and tart apple overtone. Also detected some unripened orange and even a bit a banana ester. Quite yeasty indeed! The finish is puckering too, but more from the tannic oak treatment than the lambic characters. The mouthfeel is spot on, dry and sharp, with a grainy wheaty softness under it all. A damn nice brew, a quite the surprise, worthy of the praise. Thanks Joe M for the taste!

Big horseblanket, dry cheese nose, citrus and sour. Nicely carbonated and really tart at first sip. Lemon and grapefruit, funky yeast and plenty of grassy hops at the finish to dry it out upon swallow. Refreshing and crisp, with random waves of funky tartness!

Major sour horse blanket nose. Huge sour taste. Clear and fresh. That’s what I’m talking about. Grapefruit, lemon peels.

Sampled August 2004
Pours a lightly hazy full gold color. Topped by a volcanic, rocky off-white head that is driven by an explosive carbonation that propelled the cork from the bottle. As I pour this brew an intoxicating aroma of fresh cut lemons and fresh earth wafts from my glass. As I smell deeper I get a full on Lambic grapefruit nose, it is joined by a fresh mushroom aroma of chanterelles as well as a certain damp-cellar smell. The aroma is just incredible and I am not doing it any justice by my description.

The beer erupts on the front of my tongue as I go in for the first taste. It has lots of grapefruit character, and is acidic, but mellowed a bit by age and destiny, though this is certainly only mellow by Lambic standards. I swirl my glass to get rid of some of the excessive carbonation. This beer is so light and spritzy, it is quite refreshing. The finish of this beer has a definite tannic note to it that gives this beer a certain teeth coating astringency that helps to balance the citric acidity. There is a nice earthy component here as well, almost a woody mushroom character. As it starts to warm up, I get aromatic hints of a strong barnyard funk.

The grapefruit character in this beer is quite unique for me, I have only tasted this in straight Lambics from the cask before. I really like that they decided to concentrate on this character for this Geuze, it makes this beer all the more refreshing. What a treat, I really love a good Lambic. I am quite disappointed that I have just started drinking my second and final cup of this. I certainly wish that I had more.

Some bread and sourness in the aroma. Woody flavour in middle and finish. Quite sour and carbonated. Very woody and dry.

Bottled. Deep reddish golden with lively head. Citric acid and wood up front. Strikingly malty and full bodied for a geuze. Complex flavour with cobweb and grass. The mouthfeel is however a bit bold and clean. A very interesting beer, but if you really want a superb Drie Fonteinen, go for their Kriek van Schaarbeekse Krieken.

[Sampled January 2004] The aroma is fantastic; sour and wild fermentation at its best. The color is orange and it has a beutiful head. The flavor is sour yet sweet at the same time with strong notes of the wild fermentation. A fantastic beer.