AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL16/20
adamjackson (1895) – Lyme, New Hampshire, USA – JAN 18, 2014 [delete] [move]
S – There are a few levels to this nose. You can do a one ounce pour, swish heavily and you get this blossom or oranges, lemon skin, wet hay and musty fecal aromas. Then if you let the beer chill out for a bit, it’s this cheesy old shoe with what I’d consider to be the cheesiest basement aroma like the moldiest old stone basement. Something to consider at this age though is storage conditions.If it was kept in an old damp basement, that will certainly influence the nose.
T – This is probably the most orange and lemon forward gueuze I’ve ever had. It’s also the most moldy wet blanket gueuze I’ve ever had. I’m reviewing this beer over a few glasses so I can get the full effect. It’s not really sour, more tart like a lemon, fruity like clementines and moldy, funky just leathery wet hay. It is the most “rotten” tasting gueuze I’ve ever had and, to that effect, I freaking love it!
M – The carbonation is as I expected. Not a huge explosion just a nice cork wisp with a 1 finger head that faded slowly. The beer still explodes nicely on a heavy swish with a Harbaugh approved 15% carbonation (do I really have to explain to him what that means? He’s a freaking science teacher right?) Lingering rotten grapefruit rind sticks around.
O – For what Blauw is trading for now, it’s slowly moving past its prime. The first review was in May of 2005. So that well debated 10 year fall off that Drie Fonteinen gueuze has is starting to hit. I want to say the mold / damp hay I get is totally because of storage conditions which is understandable. Is this worth a case of Framboos? No way. It’s still really freaking delicious and hopefully people rating it now get to have more than an ounce of it. It’s best shared 2-3 ways like most 75CL Gueuze. Amazing this is a whale now but age & bottles in circulation will do that. Personally, Golden Blend, Armand & Tomme, Lente, Zomer and 2007 Oude Gueuze Vintage score higher than this in my book but for different reasons. They’re all younger than this beer and brighter. I prefer them to this but this gueuze was still an experience worth going through.
