Girardin Gueuze Black Label

Brewed by Brouwerij Girardin
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Sint Ulriks-Kapelle, Belgium

Pours a copper burnt orange color with a fizzy head that forms easily, but doesn’t last too terribly long. Intense aroma, lots of wood, vinegar, sulphur, wet fur, hay, mustard. Almost fishy at times. Woodier than the Cantillon Organic/bio that I had, which is my other gueuze experience. Taste initially shocks me with sourness, which I don’t know if I’ll ever be at the point where that taste doesn’t shock me. There’s also a strong dry woody flavor to this and some sweet bread dough malt flavor. Finishes with that dry, almost toasted wood taste laying on the back of the tongue. A very earthy rather than citrus sour flavor overall. Finishes dry but cloying, perhaps a reflex to the sour flavor. Medium bodied, highly carbonated mouthfeel, and a little slick. I’d say this was pretty good, certainly very interesting, but still not a favorite style of mine.

0.375 l bottle, jumps like a madman from the bottle. Hazy brown to yellow color. Acidic aroma with lemon, grapefruit, pineapple and sulphur. Acidic and somewhat sharp flavor with citrus fruits. Bitter grapefruity finish. More traditional than the white label gueuze. Also very tasty!

The most carbonated gueuze I’ve stumbled upon. Leaves a very thick and lovely head on the hazy yellow beer. Aroma of fruits and some oak with a hint of cellar. The flavor resembles the aroma and is very dry and the lemon taste comes out more. Leaves a tarty and very dry finish, I actually got a bit thirsty while drinking this.

Aroma:Lemon,citrus aroma... Appearance:clear gold,good lacing head... Flavor:Lemon,citrus flavor...

A beautiful beer. I’d have to agree with Oakes sentiments (see his comments from 11/2001) Complex, tart but not overly so. A slight sweetness to soften it a bit. Extremely refreshing. An unexpected but wonderful surprise given I grabbed it of the shelf without any foreknowledge of its existence

Bottle, thanks Muenster! Pours a cloudy orange with a small white head. It’s very, very hot outside today (101) and this glass has no problem warming up a little bit. The nose is very intricate with nuances of oak, apples, pear, malt vinegar, barnyard, etc. Quite tasteful. The sourness in the flavor is appropriate with a light fruity sweetness underneath reminiscent of white grapes and apples with additional flavors similar to cedar, grass, goat cheese, and more. I enjoy a soured beer fairly well and this was a good one with a reasonable tartness and a respectable complexity.

375 ml bottle. Opened with a poof, and climbed out. Poured a hazy orange toned color with a foamy white head that went down rapidly. Tart, sour, maybe lactic aroma (almost typed odor). Body is a bit thinnish. Carbonation is mild, not quite creamy. The flavor is tart, and, well, makes one think a bit of old stuff that has been around too long. Bits of orange and unfamilar spice. May have been a mistake to have the Peche lambic first, but this is starting to grow on me. Maybe a good gueuze to break into the style with.

Cedric said, and possibly shouldn’t have, "would you like to see the Manikin Pis in double vision?" At the Poechenellekelder we sampled Gueuze and other Beligian beers for a couple of hours. Fortunately, the sample of Girardin came early enough to remember. A nice dry gueuze, as if we have many experiences to compere it to, nevertheless very enjoyable.