Girardin Gueuze Black Label

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

Corked bottle. Pours a clear orange amber with a diminishing white head. The aroma is wood, earth and straw, for me it was reminiscent of walking into a barn. Add some floral and citrus notes. The body is light, with fizzy carbonation. The taste is sour with a lingering, lightly bitter finish. There is some fruit, toffee and earth in the taste, but it’s an uphill battle to find them amidst the acid. It’s not a bad beer, but I’m willing to hazzard the guess that this is an acquired taste.

Bottle from Richard (irishboy) Thanks! After popping the cork out of this one, I could tell it was going to be something special. Pours out a brownish yellow color with a white head that goes away pretty fast. Initial smell is oak, lemons, straw, and sweet. Taste is similar, with a pretty sharp tart taste to it. Lively carbonation makes it very easy to sip, and it was almost like a champagne. Fucking great stuff, I hate that it took me this long to find it. I also regret that it was only in a 375 ml bottle because it disappeared way too quick for me. This is a perfect example of a gueuze lambic, certainly the best lambic I have ever drank.

Cloudy amber with thin head. While I can see why some people could love it, it was too sour for me. Reminded me of vitamin C...

Wow, well the wonderful world of lambic keeps throwing me curveballs. The more I try, the more I learn that no 2 are alike, not even close to being alike! This one poured a dirty yellow-gold, with a big creamy head. Aroma featured an initial burst of pickled green olive juice, but settled down to hint at some wet straw and wet horse, maybe some malt vinegar. The flavor was more olive juice up front, lightly sweet - somewhat sweeter than many other gueuzes I’ve tried, but it moved toward a drying finish. Acidic and very tart, some lemon juice flavors - but not the most sour and I found this slight, smooth and drinkable.

Thanks to EDA for bringing this to the NYRBG - this has to be one of the finest lambics that has ever touched my lips - the aroma defines earthy and funky - soft on the palate, especially for such a dry beer - champaign/chardonay flavors abound, with a tiny bit of apple cider sweetness underneath that never quite breaks through the sourness, but it is certainly there - a wonderful gueuze.

thanks to cmubeerman for sharing his bottle from the map room. i’ve never had a gueze. definitely more sour than the one or two flemish sours i’ve had. this was mouth puckering. pretty carbonated. refreshing i guess?

Lemon and yeast aromas. Nice off-white head which goes down leaving a thin layer of dense foam for the rest of the glass. Slightly hazy with a bright golden-orange color. Excellent tart lemon flavors with a yeasty backbone are perfectly balanced by a rich carbonation of delicate bubbles, ending with a refreshing sour aftertaste. A perfect summertime beer, although I plan to drink it year round. With beer this good, who needs lemonade?

Following my recent and rather lauding appraisal of the familial White Label, this beer could not have built more anticipation. This unfiltered version poured an expectably hazier and denser body, but its resinous pumpkin hue was no less alluring. The white foam rapidly recedes revealing a plethora of mouth-watering scents. Fruits are more noticeable on the forefront, particularly sweet apricots, peaches and a wonderful smultron aroma that accompanies those of sour apple and pear. Some of the tangy, terroir odors of Gruyère and grass that were so strong in the White Label are present here, in an albeit diluted fashion. A malty background composed of brown sugar and toffee highlighted by vanilla and oak, give the nose a very complete and balanced feel. The flavor benefits of a comparable evolution beginning with a dry, woody, Champagne explosion on the tip of the tongue, progressively shifting to a buttery, coating mouthfeel that resonates of caramel and honey flavors, sustained by a fruitier background of cherries and lemon. Somewhat rounder, softer, perhaps a tad more sour than the White Label and with notably less funk from the cheese and spice section. Emmental is nonetheless present in the long aftertaste, accentuated by notes of pepper and toast. Another exceptional gueuze that, to my palate, rises just above its filtered sibling by virtue of an incredibly pleasing texture, though it offers a slightly different bouquet. Both are worth your effort.