3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze

Bottle. Hazy orange pour with a yelllowed off white head. Aroma of funk, wood, and sour vinous fruits. Flavors of tart dark fruits, barnyard and funk, dry malt and yeast. Medium/light body, funky/dry/vinous with a dry finish.

37.5 cL bottle. Pours hazy orange and with a fizzy and fully diminished off-white head. Aroma is dry, woody and with a subtle brett note. Flavour is orange fruity and dry. Nice dry and mild.

I understand this is supposed to be an acquired taste, but it is one I certainly haven’t acquired yet. The aroma was like an earthy cheese. It looked quite nice and had nice champagne-like bubbly texture. The taste was mainly sour, with slight funky yeasty notes as well and just the slightest amount of hops. Considering it was $8 for a 375ml, I don’t think this is one taste I will ever acquire.

Huge offwhite coarse head. Deep hazy yellow body with carbonation. Dry sharpish barnyard and grain aroma with metallic acid notes. Thin dry acidic taste with grainy metallic background. Sharp and intense, but still somehow not unpleasant. Quite nice (0.75l bottle, 1999 vintage, RBNAG’07.)

Rerate, 375 ml "champagne" bottle, from Vinmonopolet. ABV is 6%. Unfiltered, bottled 10/03/2008. Pours very fizzy. Cloudy yellow colour, big white head. Lovely farmhouse aroma, notes of fermenting fruits and spices. The flavour is very sour and tart with notes of lemons and Bramley apples, hints of spices, some hops in the atertaste. Original rating: Sampled bottle, RBNAG 2007 in Grimstad, as 3 Fonteinen Beersel Oude Geuze 1999. Golden colour, large head. Funky aroma / mold, horseblanket. Nice sour flavour with oaky and farmhouse notes.

two-year old bottle. pours a cloudy honey color with a substantial head that dies fairly quickly but never completely. very sharp solventy smell with grapefruit and lemon, a bit of wood, maybe some sour apple. similar taste with a bit of mediciney-ness. quite harsh tasting. tart finish, with a pretty strong sour note and a high carbonation creamy mouthfeel. i did not like this one, but i am assured that it will grow on me, so i’ll have to rate it again another time. rerate! bottled on 22 jan. 2004, consumed on 29 feb. 2008. pours a reddish honey color with a thin whitish film. sharp sour lemon smell, with some orange, a bit of oak, and a very light straw-ish barnyard note. sharp acidic flavor, with lemons and a honey and nutty malt, straw and sweat, wood, orange, maybe some apples? it’s almost as difficult to describe as it is easy to drink. i have to force myself to go easy and enjoy. great tart sour and dry finish, with a light sweetness from the malts filling in. light medium body, decent carbonation, quenching mouthfeel. just as sharp as i remember it, but i like it sooo much better than that first time. sharp, unabashedly different, complex, and such a stark contrast from the american hop bombs and spicy fruity belgians. i want so much more of this.

Sharp champagne-like aroma. Sweet pickle juice, citrus, cherries, and oak. Rose amber color with good lacing. Taste is strong and sharp initially with some saltiness that induces salivation. There is a tartness in the middle, some sweet pickle qualities with an oaken dryness. Rich vanilla accents. Palate is a mixture of dry and sweet, well carbonated with good flavor changes. Overall, unusual and rich, fruity and woody, salty sweet and sour all at the same time. Wonderfully complex. Rerate - had again at the Poechenellekelder in Brussels. This was one of the top beers of my trip. Had to bump it up to a 4.4. One of the few beers I made space in my suitcase for.

75 cl bottle, 1999-version. Hazy orange color, white head. Sour/acidic, fruit, yeast, vinous. Dry. (RBNAG’07 in Grimstad Nov. 3th.)