Girardin Gueuze Black Label

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

Smells of sweet wet leaves - a little sulfury too. Hazy gold color and a lacy head. Yeasty, lemony with lactic tastes. Very astringent finish. Medium bodied. Unbelievable gueze!

375 ml bottle. Pours a clear dark gold body on first pour, fairly cloudy on second. Fairly large fluffy fizzy off-white head. Lots of visible carbonation. Aroma is quite funky and just full of stinky cheese and almost-spoiled yogurt. Lots of cellar mustiness and barnyard notes. Quite brash and young smelling. Flavor is much the same, quite tart and funky with minimal acidity. Finishes bone dry, yet there’s almost a dry powdery sugar taste just before the mustiness and light cork take over. Not a whole lot of brett presence. Mouthfeel is very dry with a crisp tartness. Great lively efforvescent carbonation, pretty much perfect. Overall, just about perfect for what I want from a "young" Oude Gueuze. All this needed for greatness was a few years in the cellar.

Bottle shared with tupalev, jerc, blankboy & HogTownHarry - courtesy of tupalev. Hazy sunset-gold colour with just the faintest hint of a white head. Aroma is sour & funktastic - notes of stinky cheese, lemon, yeast & wet dog - sounds like crap, i know, but it was damn good! Flavour is fantastic as well - concentrated citrus notes, lots of lemon and grapefruit, with a dusty yeastiness coming in behind. Killer!

First beer on election night 2004:
Crystal clear copper coloured body with a thin, big-bubbled white head. Aroma of barnyard, sour grapes, yeast, acid, some metal and a nice fresh fruit quality. Light-bodied; VERY tart lambic flavour up front with that pleasant wheat and apple taste, followed by a puckering tart acidity. Follow that with a dry grape and yeast taste and round it out with a sweet finish of caster sugar. Light bodied overall and the aftertaste doesn’t stay too long. A damn good beer and a great bottle to try. I sampled this split (37,5 cL) bottle purchased from Whole Foods in Vienna, Virginia on 02-November-2004.

37.5cL bottle. Pours a golden-orange color (becomes cloudy at the second pour); white head with excellent retention and lacing. Very generous, tart aroma: sour citrus, barnyard funk, yeast. Sour, slightly acidic mouthfeel: lemony citrus, very tart, hints of cheese, herbs, and straw; lively carbonation. Lengthy finish showing lemons and lingering yeast. Quite good.

Bottle Cork popped as soon as I untwisted the cage and gushed half of the bottle also made a major mess - Pours hazy amber with not much head. Aroma is straight barnyard, some bad cheese, sour. Flavor is quite similar, there is some subtle oak there to mellow it but it is sharply sour. Palate is medium bodied, quite astringent, and tough to hold in the mouth. Lots of flavor there. just not much of it I found favorable.

RateBeer Summer 2003: Murky light orange color with a small head. Sour aroma with a bit of horse-blanket and old wood. Tart and sour. This is the first gueuze that I truly enjoyed.

Sampled February, 2004; Hop Leaf, Chicago
There is a pronounced and funky farm-house cheese aroma that wafts from my Gueuze tumbler as I pour this beer. Coupled with this is a dry musty barnyard aroma, and of course a sour aroma as well. The beer is brilliantly clear and a light amber-gold color. It is topped by a creamy beige head that starts out quite big but falls to a persistent 1/8 inch head for most of my first glass. The taste of the beer has a nice sour cidery character to it. This is a sour beer, but it is not as mouth-puckeringly so like some Gueuzes. Overall this is a nice light, refreshing, and spritzy beer, just like a good Gueuze should be. The beer is also very dry, and finishes with a bit of woodiness. This is dry, musty, and dusty, it reminds me of a wet Belgian hayfield in early spring.

This is an absolutely world class Lambic, that pairs wonderfully with my appetizer of mussels & French fries with a garlic aioli. Though the beer is bone dry it develops a perceived sweetness when paired with my appetizer. The food takes away nothing from the beer and the beer takes away nothing from the food, an absolutely stunning combination.

Sampled March, 2001
Smells quite musty not that sour smelling, a bit of oakiness as well. This beer is quite clear in appearance. Tastes sour with an astringent oakiness to it as well. Definitely going to have to try this one again.