Ommegang Ommegeddon

Fresh fruity aroma of grapefruit, pears, apples, oranges is perfume-like in it’s intensity. Opaque yellow gold with decent and lasting white head that recedes slowly with some nice lacing. Fruits from the aroma meld together in the flavour with a citrus character dominant. Overall flavour is sweet with a pleasant balancing bitterness. Medium body with smooth texture and mild carbonation. Intriguingly different and very complex and enjoyable. Sampled at the Extreme Beer Festival 2005. Score adjusted after resampling at Kennet Square Brew Fest 2005 and Extreme Beer Fest 2006. This one is improving with time. Original rating (9-5-8-4-17=4.3). Resampled again at the Extreme Beer Fest 2006 and this one just keeps improving. It is near perfection with a year’s age on it.

750mL Bottle. Batch#1, June 2007. A quick snap, but no gushing. Pours a deep, slightly clouded golden straw, with a touching pillow of rocky foam that laces fantastically above. Aroma is fresh. Grasses, pineapple skin, cocount husk, passionfruit and lots of bright vibrant summery sensations. Delightful! Wow. On the tongue, this is explosive and perfectly dry. Airy and a waft of many delicate flavors and scents. There’s exquisite balance between the spicing, the hops, the Brett and the malt profile. A fantastic rendition! This has so much going for it with Brett working on the sugars, contributing to the stunning fresh fruit profile and lending a real air of elegance. So drinkable. So delightful. An immediate favorite. I would be blessed to drink a well aged version of this once a month.

A sample-and-a-half, and dreams of more, at EBF 2006. Hazy, luminous gold, warm and sunny, suspended yeast quite evident, good head retention....the nose, intense with vanilla and new oak, bretty sourness and fresh grassy hops creating an earthy promise, and sour fruits adding more suspense for what will follow on the tongue....soon delight by an awesomely balanced melange of sweet-sour apricots, melon, vanilla, with fine floral hops, rosemary and more acerbic spices in the clay-like earthiness of the full, luscious body....this in some ways seems more like a biere de garde in the mouthfeel, so luscious and round yet peppered throughout with herbs and very light fruitiness and always just enough alcohol, a kiss of warmth on that frigid Boston night....it finishes tart, very full, with puckering carbonation, lively and not to be forgotten though it be many months before I’ll savor it again....an absolute transcendent masterpiece, as close to perfection as I can score it on measly samples....I don’t need a bottle, I need a case, a keg, a hogshead.

Bottle purchased at Raja Liquors in Livermore, CA. The pour: cloudy, light caramel color, with nice head retnetion and brussels lace. The bouquet: heavy on the bretta and hoppiness- (it reminded me of Orval!) orangy, citrusy. The palate: heavy on the hoppiness- quite sharp. Very herbal, very earthy. (Again, a lot like Orval!) The finish: The aftertaste for me was somewhat short, but very refreshing... A masterpiece! May the brewers at Ommegang be blessed by GOD.

Pours a cloudy orange with a rich, foamy white head. Great lacing. The nose of this thing is straight brett, beautiful and funky in all it’s glory. Apples, pears, stinky blue cheese, sour milk, bitter tea, and orange. Boatloads of funk for sure! The taste is damn near perfect - the brett is not particularly sour or biting, but its clean, clear, effervescent, herbal, bright and earthy. Packed with complexities in each sip; Bread, apple, clove, pepper, hay, ginger, Sprite, and bubblegum, with a long, dry, herbal, fruity, mineral finish. Funktastical goodness in ever glug. Really, really, really great to drink - it’s fun, refreshing, interesting, creative and devilishly drinkable. Hats off to the Ommegang crew for this masterpiece!

Presentation: It was poured from a brown, corked and caged bottle marked batch #2, March 2008 and served in a tulip glass. The body is cloudy with a pale yellow orange color and it has some active carbonation that rushes up to the head. Its head is white, fluffy and builds up thick and tall. It has excellent retention and coats the whole inside of the glass with lace. The aroma is lovely combination of fruity and funky yeast with notes of pear and dried apricot, mellow floral hops, light wheat and doughy malt. The flavor hits the tongue with tart funky yeast, sour grain and wheat. Hops come in and add an almost minty herbal flavor and mild bitterness. The finish is dry and the yeast flavor lingers, begging me to sip again. On the palate it has a light to medium body and a smooth texture with active yet smooth carbonation. Its palate makes it easy to sip and its complex aroma and interesting flavor enticed me to drink on. Very well done!

I think I had about eight 4oz samples of this because Randy Thiel kept toppin off my glass. Cheers to you, Randy!
Stunning appearance that reminds me of Vervifontaine Blonde. Full and lasting is the perfectly-formed white, dense head atop the shining, sparkling, unfiltered, white-gold-meets-tangerine juice colored body. Tons of lacing. Aroma is just a pure, fantastically powerful shot of lovely, tart brett. In one word, pineapple! Reminds me of Mo Betta in that regard, though not nearly as concenrated a pineapple aroma. Spicy hops round out the edges, while some of the pale malt sugars serve as a backdrop. Juicy nectarines mingle with limes and starfruits. White pepper-like notes are probably just a result of the dry woody character, while the ginger is just faintly present. Lightly oily barnyard/leather notes present. Flavor comes right back at you with the brett. At once cleansing the palate and then delivering some light pale grains, hint of dry floral and grassy hops. More pineapple and lemon-lime notes. Very tight, expansive mouthfeel completes the experience while the brett lingers on, supported by malt that is neither too lightly done nor overly sweet. Spiciness from actual spices is very tame (which I realy appreciate). Hops play off the fruity/tart brett, adding complexity/layers to this wonder. Odd that they use cascades in the dry hopping, but who cares! This stuff is a masterpiece if I’ve ever had one. Anxiously awaiting the bottles. No alcohol present.

Draft, EBF: Beautiful murky gold. Splendid lacing work procures a huge and fluffy white dome. This is said to be based on Hennepin, but I swear if there’s any relation, this one is Hennepin on hard drugs. My pal Martin had the following catch-all sentence to resume the nose: “It smells a lot of things including something linked with beard”. Thus his the charm of Ommegeddon, it brings flavours you experience nowhere else aplenty. Deep and tender saaz? hops bring us a soapy and very floral background while subdued malt tries to peak in with melon and litchi suggestions. The soul lays in the funkiest yeast that procures a plethora of creamy funky flavours: hairstuff, shaving cream, soured hay and milk, sweet lilac. Funky and refreshing as it dries out on a cobweb-like pillowy palate. Tart and bitter finish. Dusty and rustic, liquid rosewater. Totally exciting and a worthy creator of the wildest beer discussions. I can’t even say how drinkable this is, I just don’t know where I am drinking this, losing track of time and reality. A gem for which a plea of support is barely enough. Best of show? This was a show.

First bottled batch lacked some brett, but was still a pretty good Saison worth about 3.6.

Batch number 2 is a far more successful bottling attempt where the brett can be smelled as soon as the bottle is opened. The dry-hopping is not quite to the incredibly perfumey and fresh levels of the draught, but this still deserves a solid 4.2 to 4.3. Just not as decadent, powerfully aromatic and foamy as the ridiculously brilliant draught batches from the early days.