Girardin Gueuze Black Label

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

Dark orange color with a medium head. Aroma of sour wheat and honey. More of both of them in the taste with an added citrus zing of orange. Overall it was more subdued than most gueuzes I’ve tried. Nice.

Smaller corked bottle. Pours a perfectly clear deep gold with lively carbonation and a thin diminishing head. Aroma is initially cork, then some farmhouse funkiness, and followed by a ton of lactic sourness. Flavor is extremely sour and acidic, wierd sour-sweetness on the tip of the tongue kind of like sour patch kids. Some woody and earthy notes in the middle, and finishes bone dry with lots of sourness. Very nice overall.

First rating
(75 cl bottle at The Rover, Göteborg) Shady golden color, fluffy cream colored head. Fruity and sour scent. Lots of sour grapes and stable taste, very intense initiialy. Like non-ripe red currant, while they’re still green. Not very long aftertaste. Spritzy mouthfeel, low bitterness.
8/3/8/4/16=3.9

Second rating
(Bottle)
Shady copper color, small white head. Sour, acidic, raspberry, sweet scent. Acidic, sour, green currants taste. Sprityz mouthfeel, low bitterness.
9/3/8/3/17=4.0

Bottle. Thanks to Ben (btg) for the awesome trade. This one took me two samples before I could get down a rating. What to tihnk? It starts out with so much green apple, I begin to doubt the complexity already. From here it goes malty and yet tart, with tons of peppery, puckering, bittersweet yeast flavor. Body is extra-full, like the Speedway of gueuzes. This beer knows what it wants to showcase (A drinkability that is paradoxically, complimentary to the full body). But then I’m still getting the apples, some musty old wool sucks that are wet from sweating in them. Light citrus and green apples, with just huge tart yeast appeal. It never gives up, I can still taste this stuff to perpetuity. The thing is, this seems 180 degrees from Cuvee Rene, which is what I "grew up on", so I just can’t get used to this stuff. It’s less sourness, less yeast barnyardiness and cheese, but I will admit to the body being better, with more full, round, actual sweet flavor. Yes, it’s the sweet malt you can actually hang on to in this one, whereas with Rene, you have a pure tart finish. I must admit to some bias against this one, when it comes to the overall score.

330ml Bottle (One Pint, Helsinki) Very lively, enormous light fluffy head. Sharp bitter aroma, very guezy. Hugely bitter and sharp taste, loads of grapefruit. Cleans the mouth and leaves a dry bitter finish that lasts for ever, leaves some malt too in the late finish.

Bottle picked up at the Hop Duvel, Gent, early December 07. Shared this in Belgian Beer Tasting evening with Loz, Casey and Traci’ 04-01-08 Didn’t take any notes as I was convinced that I’d had this beer and rated it before (which I had) so whilst some of this is unearthed from travel diary the rest is from memory. Poured hazy dull orange colour with white rapidly receding head, in fact the head on my beer had all but gone by the time Casey passed me my glass. Aroma a bit musty and that nice funky sourness also a touch woody. lovely dry snappy bite wonderful tartness, refreshing with some gentle lemon zinginess zapping away. A truly excellent beer that I loved.

Bottle. Clear orange/golden colour with a small white head. Rich aroma and taste of yeast, fruits and citrus. Well balanced gueuze.

Cloudy yellow/apricot color with a white head. Has a sour/sourish aroma, yeasty, with different fruits and of course quite alot of grapefruit. Fruity flavor and sour in a balanaced way.