Hanssens Experimental Cassis

Brewed by Hanssens Artisanaal
Style: Lambic Style - Fruit
Dworp, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Stem glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Corked bottle from SoLan. Thanks, Alan!
Pours a muddy, murky cranberry juice red with a nose-punching aroma of sour cranberry and overly ripened sour strawberry. Hints of raspberry soaked in cedar vinegar are in there as well. Flavor is a punch-in-the-mouth rush of bittered and soured cranberry and cherry, with dark fruits left in oak rounding out the flavor. Thin yet lingering mouthfeel. Wow. This isn’t a beer; it’s an experience. AWESOME.

Wow. I’ve been very much looking forward to this beer. Tasted at toncatcher T3? Bottle from Wee Heavy? Cloudy red color. Sourness is light. Very easy to drink. Excellent.

2008 vintage. Thanks Dave. The beer pours to a murky maroon lipstick colored body with no head. The aroma is really nice. Lots of black currants. Deep cereal grain. The flavor is dominated by sour black currants with sour generic sour. The pH must be about 2. Really damned sour. This beer is right up my alley! Heck yeah! Thanks for a great beer.

Special 375ml bottle at Max’s. Big Thanks to Chuck for sharing the bottle!!!! Pours a nice bright reddish with a violet tinge- somewhat hazy and gets hazier as the pours continue. Fizzy diminishing head to nothing. Aroma is straight up black currants, awesome sour and tartness, earthy herbal, great lambic funk and sourness- and lots of weird things going on with currant beers- I get green vegetable, tomato, and almost a tangerine quality. Fruits are packed into this on the flavor- tons of black currant with awesome brett lambicus, sour, brett, funk, acid everywhere and a great prickly sour finish with more tart fruit. I loved it!

Bottle at Redlight. Poured a gorgeous, slightly murky, ruby brown. No head, slight carbonation. Aroma is funky, herbal, with some "green" notes. The flavor is bold, but almost refined. The currants make an appearance on the finish, but with no astringency. Awesome bottle.

Bottle traded by MaxxDaddy, thanks its very appreciated! Shared with Andreasen11. Pours a murky deep red with no head. Lovely sour aromas of ripe black currents, dry grape, leather, dirt and oak. Much better than expected and very familiar to the Hanssens Oude Kriek. The ripe black currants it very well balanced in the flavour, not as up front or sweet as in other black currant lambic’s I have tasted. At the same time it is still extremely sour and with the typical Hanssens dusty, woody signature just as expected. I love this stuff!

Where the Wild Beers Are, 2011. Typical of Hanssens, this beer is very sour. It is red in color, with a big barnyard aroma complimented by the fruit flavor. Palate is just a little heavier than most other Hanssens fruit lambics. It is very good, but I it is unlikely I will have it again at this price of $25 for 37cl.

Bottle pours red color with pink head that whisps away very quickly. Aroma is very funky, sour notes with some fruit, and I just can’t stop smelling this. Its real nice. Medium light mouthfeel. Flavor follows the nose and is very tart, puckering, has some fruit, must, and is really tasty. Overall a nice brew. Very drinkable.

Bottled@Fonefan. Ruby red colour with basically no head. Aroma is sour blackberries with some sour wood. Flavour is brutally dry black berries. Extremely nice. I am out of words. .

In short: An intense lambic, typical Hanssens signature with moderate blackcurrant presence and lacking carbonation. Excellent beer. It’s Hanssens.
How: Bottle 375ml from dickinsonbeer. Post-EBF tasting session #1 at dmac hotel room.
The look: Ruby body with almost no head
In long: This is a Hanssens, no doubt about that. Hanssens sharp funky signature from start to finish. Very tart, very acidic, very sour, very funky. This is Hanssens. The fruity blackcurrant (aka cassis) flavours come out nicely but not as much as the cherries in a Hanssens Kriek. I think the nature of the fruit is such that if you want blackcurrants to come out upfront in such an intense sharp acidic beer you need to use a truckload of them, which wasn’t the case here. There is a carbonation problem with this beer. This beer is nearly flat and it prevents it from reaching the greatness of Hanssens Gueuze or Hanssens Kriek. Still a excellent beer for a Hanssens-head like me. I hope they fix the carbonation problem and make it a regular beer. For what felt like an eternity the atheist Hanssens worshiper that I am has been waiting for a new Hanssens beer like the Christians are waiting for the Jesus second coming. Hanssens 1, God 0.