What a good way to start the weekend. After a long week at work, coming home to a bottle of Cantillon makes me want to pump my fist triumphantly like Judd Nelson. Don’t you forget about me.
What? Oh yeah, beer. So this is Cantillon’s straight up organic Gueuze. You know the drill: a blend of various ages of oak barrel conditioned lambic (usually involving 1, 2, and 3 year old spontaneously fermented beer). Cantillon sez this beer represents half of the production of the brewery and that when cellared properly (i.e. not how I do it!) it will still have “an exceptional taste and flavour after 20 years.” Hard to believe that anyone can hold on to a bottle for that long, as this is classic stuff:
Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio – Pours a cloudy golden yellow color with a finger of tight white head and good retention. Smells of musty funk, yeast, a little oak, that twang that indicates sourness. Taste starts sweet, with some yeasty funk and spice hitting in the middle, followed by oak and a nice tart sourness intensifying through the finish. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, smooth, some pleasant acidity that intensifies through the finish. Plenty of carbonation, a little more than 3F, but not as much as Tilquin. Overall, a fantastic, well balanced beer, not quite the revelation that the kriek was, but definitely on par with the best Gueuzes I’ve had. A-
Beer Nerd Details: 5% ABV bottled (375 ml capped and corked). Drank out of an entirely too big Tired Hands glass on 5/10/13. Label sez: Bottled 3 December 2012.
I have a 750 of this in my cellar, but I can guarantee it won’t last 20 years. Probably not even within an order of magnitude. Glad I’m starting with the simple stuff though. Not sure how much of a difference there is between this “Bio” stuff and the regular Classic Gueuze, but it’s still damn good. Anywho, I get the feeling minds will be blown as I start to branch out into their fancier offerings. Stay tuned.
The only difference between the Bio Geuze and the regular Classic Geuze is the name. They label their geuze as organic in Belgium but it doesn’t pass the lableing muster in the US. Hence, different names. You ordered that from Belgium, I think, hence bio gueze instead of classic.
Ah, you are correct, this was part of my direct order from Belgium. Good to know!
I had the Classic Gueuze, and I was picking up a little sulphur hint kicking around. I thought this was strange, but I have seen stuff since that indicates this is normal. Crazy, complex, and tasty stuff.
Sulfur, huh? I wasn’t getting any of that, though it is very complex and tasty stuff, as you say. May have to keep an eye out for sulfur in this wild ales…