3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze

2004 vintage. Thanks to tjthresh for this bottle. Nose is pure heaven with a soured fruit-barnyard aroma that I now find irresistible. So much funky weirdness that I can’t always explain this flavor. It is wonderful

Thanks to hopdog for opening this bottle from 1999. Pours a hazy golden orange with a small off white bubbly head that left slight lacing. Aroma of mango, fruity, a tart funkiness, leathery, very well balanced and just an explosion of lambic awesomeness. Flavor was also tart funkiness, apples, melons, dry, woody. So far one of the best Lambics I have had to date. Thanks Steve.

From a 375mL Bottle, January 22, 2004. Pours a murky, orangish gold color with a thin layer of whitish head. Woody aromas of tart peach pits, mango skins, and green crabapple flesh that creates a tart, fruity bouquet. A nice leathery, cidery funk adds some welcome complexity. Light bodied, champagne-like effervescent mouthfeel. So simply in composition, yet so complex in flavor. Sour, acidic flavors of crababble skins skitter across the tongue initially, followed by some pithy lime rind and more leather. Final smack of a fine stilton cheese melted over baked pears.

750 ml bottle from Sam’s in Chicago, bottled February 28, 2004. By far the most attractive Gueuze I’ve encountered - hazy golden amber colour with a full lasting creamy, fizzy, and pillowy off-white head. Lemon, tart grapefruit, fruity, and lightly floral aroma to go with musty, earthy, yeasty, and cheesy funk with some barnyard notes. Lemon and grapefruit tartness lead the flavours, with a pithy grapefruit bitterness to balance the tartness and an underlying yeasty and soft cheese flavour bringing in additional complexity. Lingering tartness and yeasty and pithy bitterness to finish. Light bodied, bone dry, amazingly refreshing. I could drink this all day. A little unsure at first, this one blossomed into perhaps the best lambic I’ve had. Just delicious. Great choice for the last beer of 2006 and first of 2007.

corked and caged 750 mL bottle, what a sour way to inaugurate 2007! bubblegum yeast billow out of the bottle before i even poured it, and smelling the bottle brings along woody and acidic (lightly vinegary and ’light’ acids) aromas. highly carbonated, evidenced by the sharp foop of the cork as well as a head perpetually fed from several streams of bubbles that look like natural springs inside the glass. bright funky white fruits, with musty sour fermented flavors. the astringency provides balance to a stronger malt presence than i expected. despite the malt in the body, it’s a nice dry finish that leaves plenty of sour behind. an expensive treat, worth it once in a while!

Another finder at holidays. Hazy gold pour with a full white foamy head. The ripened fruits are alive. Especially the apples and pears and barnyard aromatics. Blended sours are amazing. Considered against the pedestrian gueuzes I have had before. This baby is the real deal! Blended beautifully with a nice sweet sour dry finish.

Poured a slightly hazy golden, darker than I’d expected, with a white fluffy head. Aroma is quite strong, unripe grapes, acid, brett and a plethora of both ripe and unripe lunchbox fruits. Dry lively mouthful, with some heavy sour notes and a wonderful balance. Flavour was fairly malty for a gueuze, with wonderful sour apple and citrus, as well a good deal of brettyness. The finish as you would expect is long dry and sour.. So enjoyable and balanced. A real treat.

Extremely dry, sour and fruity. Light straw color with yesty notes. Not for the faint hearted! A classic geuze, very well made.