Hanssens Oudbeitje

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

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

37.5 cL into a Westmalle glass (from ABS Drinks), clear orange with no head. Smells very sour and fruity, wtih some sweetness. Tastes both sweet and sour. Sharp acid taste, but it tastes, hence good rating. Has a strong acidic sour taste. Its enoyable but not one for people unused to sour ales.

nose is heavy pigsty, sour medium strawberry, weak late menthol, feel is watery, carb is medium, taste is decent strawberry, sour notes, pigsty, late sweet leaves.

Such a unique beer. Smell is loaded with dried strawberry flavors and some lingering lemon scent. After the initial sweet, fruity smells comes a unique flavor I’ve never experienced in a beer, either sulfur or egg, or a chemically smell. It even reminds me of something burnt and musty at the same time. Popcorn? Haha. Poured out with no head and some big bubbles made from a vigorous pour. Looks like white peach juice. Taste is abrasive and harsh with acidity and funky sour notes. Far more sour than any beer I’ve had to date. Some slight berry sweetness that is relentlessly overpowered by burnt lemons/grilled lemons. It even drys out the mouth quite a bit. I think the sour ale extremist would love this beer.

Bottle. A fruity smell, later sour, some sulfur. No head, the body is red-orange. The taste is sour, later a little bit fruity. No carbonation, the body is medium strong and dry.

14/10/2011 37.5cl bottle @ John’s place - BB: 7/8/2027 (2011-444)

Little cloudy pale amber to light orange beer, no head. Aroma: at first agressive chemicals like in byte-x, strawberry jelly, cheesy, herbal, bit chemical still. MF: no carbon, light to medium body. Taste: little fruity,s our, bitter chemical touches, strawberry jam. Aftertaste: still strawberry jam, lots of citric acid burning the throat. Man, this is some nasty stuff... Maybe it was the bottles, but it was two of ’em.

Special edition year 2000 .. . BoTTlE from Steins .. . when i popped the cork, nothing- flat as a pancake .. Pours a flat deep gold .. . no foam .. . wooo! nice clean sour punch, then fades to a delicious light hay and strawberry aftertaste .. .trutv, tv for inbred mongrels .. . light grain, wet hay, wood, and strawberry- quite the sour lil bastard .. . very nice stuff, and i enjoyed it immensely, just would have liked a touch of fizz or not.. . . I mean, for the entire second act, the audience kept yelling, "She’s in the attic, she’s in the attic!"

Bottle from Bierkompass. BBE 2027. Poured orange with no head. Strong barnyard aroma, some rhubarb as well. Flavor is rhubarb, strawberries, strong sourness. Finish has some woody notes. Mouthdrying. Interesting brew.

Bottle from EtreGourmet web shop. Pours a slightly hazy honey-hued orange with a minimal white head, vanishing quickly but leaving a thin ring of creamy foam around the edges. Nose is unusual, complex and quite refreshing: lemons, sulphur, wild strawberries, stables/brett funk, hay, hints of peaches and sweet domestic strawberries - forming two layers of strawberry. Very interesting. I even get some faint caramel and molasses tones somewhere in the mix, late in the whiff. Taste is also quite remarkable: the ultra-soft, near-flat palate carries mild grassy tones up front, then a rush of lemon tartness comes in with a doughy kind of caramel to it, leaving with a touch of molasses, strawberry and a mellow kind of brett funkiness which is hard to put into words. And I’m really trying here! :-P Dry and extremely tart aftertaste bordering on astringent, which really hits the spot for me. This is a complex, original and very interesting fruit lambic which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the genre. I feel like I’ve just turned a page in a sour beer textbook! :-)