Eylenbosch Gueuze

Formerly brewed at Mort Subite (Alken-Maes - Heineken)
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Kobbegem, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

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17th May 2009
Copenhagen Beer Festival. Huge thanks to Jacob (Hildigoltur) for pulling this from his cellar and sharing. Sourish woody nose. Easy going sour beer. A little acidic but nicely rounded off with a soft dry palate.

Sampled at the RBSG Summer Grand Tasting (Grand Rapids, MI). Another ’84 bottle. Pours a murky brownish hue smells like straight pears and bananas. Initial is decent sourness, heavy on the lactic acid end of things. Lighter, pear and apple on the backend. A bit bland and well thinned out, lighter sourness than anticipated with some heavier yogurt, light lactic acid. Brett is decent, funky and dusty but this seems too fruity for me, almost moving towards Banana Laffy Taffy. Interesting, but just not my thing. The cheese and brett are nice elements but the fruity esters are just too big and distracting for me.

1983 bottle with some carbonation left in it. Bottle courtesy of GRG1313. Pours with a clear, deep golden hue with a lasting white head. Aroma is musty, mostly cork, acid, apple, and rotten wood. Flavors are sweet, faded, appley, mild funk. Still lively bubbles, but the corked character makes it dead. Fun to try. We had a older Hassens that day (something from the 50s), and while flat, held its flavors much better.

Bottle @ Akkurat. Pours an orange color with white head. Sweet malty fruity aroma. Sweet malty fruity and slightly sour tart flavor. Has a fruity malty finish.

750 ml bottle. 1984. Pours a hazed murky peachskin orange- mostly flat. Aroma is sweet and sour sauce, soy, oxidation,, some musty water, dank mildew, horsey brett funk and light fruity esters. Flavor is dusty old cobwebs, dusty malts, cracker, toast, slight old stale sweetness over a lactic sourness, oxidation has set in a lot, gets very earthy and leafy with leather, luckily aceto hasn’t overwhelmed and there is a flat acidity in the end which is a bit lackluster. I think this may have been my 2nd or 3rd 1984, and all have been slightly disappointing so far or poorly handled or stored over the years.

Bottled vintage 1988, courtesy of joergen. Red color, small white head. Madeira nose, a bit oxidated. Light, fruity, Madeira-wine notes. Bit off-date already, but drinkable.

Bottle, vintage 1992 smuggeld in to the Roskilde Festival, Plan B beer tasting session, Thanks to Engelsmann. A hazy amber beer with a small white head. The aroma is sweet, acit and fruity, the taste is sweet fruity, light sour and acid. Medium body with a sweet dry finish.

UPDATED: AUG 11, 2008 Second try, from a bottle of 1984 Eylenbosch Gueuze, courtesy of Manuele at Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fà, in Rome:
Carbonation was fine, even providing a veil of foam throughout the tasting. Sourness soared throughout stemming from very citrusy fruitiness. Some sugar was tasted alongside some dry cereals, but in no way took anything away from the enjoyment of the puckering lambic wilderness. Much, much, much better. Many thanks Manuele!! 3.7/5

First try, from a best-before-1989 bottle of Eylenbosch Festival Supergueuze:
Any first impressions?
-A murky, dark sunset flare in a glass.
-Obviously flat, and quite sugary.
-Apple flavors and oxidation battle it out in a not-so-fair fashion.
-Acidity is still okay, but powdery sugar is definitely nagging it.

What if you dig deeper?
-An overcooked pie crust, forgotten on the windowsill.
-Dirty yeast shoves its hands in the face of appreciable flavors.
-This might have been an okay product once, but it certainly wasn’t stellar, otherwise it would have held up a lot better. 1.9/5.

[The original Eylenbosch Gueze - vintage 1988 - sampled March 2004] The aroma is both sweet and sour with notes of wood. The color is a hazy amber and it has a fine head. The flavor is both sweet and sour with notes of candy sugar - like a Faro. The notes of sugar makes it a little weird - I wonder if it is the 16 years in the bottle that has done this? For a gueze this is not that good - but as a beer it is OK.

Diese Flasche habe ich Egide Snakkers zu verdanken, der sie mir zum Testen überließ. 1989 wurde die Brauerei von Alken-Maes aufgekauft und 2001 ganz geschlossen, die Flasche stammt noch aus der Zeit vor beiden Ereignissen aus der Mitte der 80er Jahre. Verhalten säuerlicher Geruch, nicht unheimlich aromatisch wie viele andere Gueuze. Mäßig säuerliches, gleichmäßiges Auftreten, wobei es nicht das Gefühl und die Feinfühligkeit besitzt, den Tester richtig anzusprechen. Die Aromen sind nicht wirklich stark und die Säuerlichkeit bleibt auf gleichem Niveau. Keine Ausnahme-Gueuze!