Girardin Gueuze Black Label

"Eaglefan keeps getting me to try these lambics. This one did surprise me a little. Poured a hazy orange color with a pretty head. Aroma was different and only thing i could make out for sure were apples. Flavor was just funky like the rest of the style, nice and tart but didn’t twist my mouth around as much. "

375ml bottle. Poured slightly cloudy, deep honey gold with an enormous bubbly white head that diminished to a thin coating over the course of the first half of the glass. The nose is OUTSTANDING, very yeasty (horse blanket, a little funky sweat), shades of champagne, with noticeable sourness. Absolutely wonderful aroma. I could smell this all day. Flavor is massively sour (no vinegar that I can detect) with more funky yeast character and champagne. Tingly spices, maybe ginger-spicy a little bit?, definitely some wood. Faint cherry note. Bubbly on the palate. Dry finish with plenty of lingering sourness. Wow, what a beer.

Bottle at Wildeman, Amsterdam. Great nose, on this great beer. Very sour, esp on finish, but smooth too, with a flavour that is balanced, drinkable, with the right amount of sweetness too. Superb.

Bottle. Dirty gold colour thickish white head. Farmyardy lemon aroma, some sourness. In mouth fine, with more sour lemon and funkyness. Finish has more of the same. Bit of an aquired taste. Not as extreme as same. Lemony acids balance the funkyness. Fine and quite interesting. Not sure I’d want more than one of these a week though. 3.6/5.0. Re-rate Christmas Day 2008. First beer of the day and what a way to start. So drinkable it is untrue. The farmyard, bretty aroma, the lemon flavours, the mouthfeel is soft and just right with a little fullness from the carbonation. Refreshing. Would have this as my first beer of the day, in the middle and at the end. Almost as good as the bottle at the Waterhuis in Gent pre-Zythos 2008 that is the best I’ve ever had.

Bottle: Pours a pale copper color with a fizzy white head that sounds like a Cola when settling. If you didn’t know anything about this beer you could tell it was going to be sour by just looking at it through the bottle. The muddy sediment on the bottom of the cork was not appealing. I did enjoy the citrus/apple aroma but found the flavor powerfully sour. To me this beer was too acidic and overrated!

I think I was ruined by an old friend of mine. He says he’s got some stuff he wants to bring by, and one of them was this incredible, liquid heaven in a green bottle. This is simply one of the greatest beers I’ve ever had, and look forward to the Cantillon someday. Thanks aspidites!!

The beer after removing the wire basket and cork from the green 375ml green bottle sets in my glass a beclouded amber color with a voluminous creamy light tan head that lingers long, leaving a thick covering of lace to surround the glass. Nose has a distinct somewhat sweet wet moldy straw aroma, underpinned by a staunch tartness, musty, but still appealing to me; start is first a bit sweet, followed by a massive sourness, with the body light to moderate in feel. Finish has a tongue biting acidity, with the sourness clinging to the palate like Jack Benny to a dime. What a magnificent brew, one I’ve wanted to sample for many years, trust me it was certainly worth the wait.

Bottle in gueuze tasting. To my taste, this is the best example of the style currently available that I’ve had so far. Powerful barnyard/horseblanket, citrus/apple encircled by a dominant hay aroma that welcomes you. In a blink of an eye, you know that you’re in front of something serious. Attack of sharp dustiness but less sourness then the Cantillon gueuze 96. Taste holds for a long period of time in a strong full body that lead to astringency.