Tasting Notes: Horal’s Oude Geuze Mega Blend 2013

Horal’s Oude Geuze Mega Blend 2013 (Belgium: Lambic – Geuze: 7% ABV)

Visual: Cloudy banana yellow. Large tight bubbled white head. Lots of carbonation in the body.

Nose: Lightly like fresh crusty bread. Light apples. Dried apricot. Fresh. Light grapes. Oatmeal.

Body: Sherbety. Sour white grapes. Tannins. Champagne. Lychee. Apples. bready and yeastie. yellow raspberries. Mango. Dried banana. Light custard sweetness under the acidity.

Finish: Dry oak. Oatmeal. Fresh cut apples. Vanilla. Funky yeast – puff crisps. White wine. Mango. Lychee.

Conclusion: Well, I say “god damn”!. I guess having all those different lambic breweries to go to for samples to blend really gives Horal a hell of a lot to work with. Should have been self evident really, but it is always surprising to see it work in practise. This is lovely, just acidic enough to give a slight dryness, but then packing a huge fruit explosion for flavour.

I think the trick is, while it has that mouthfeel of being like a dry white wine, the fruitiness is sweet and embedded deep within the beer. You can almost imagine fruit syrup oozing up out of the middle of it to your tastebuds. Because of that you get the freshness and mouth tingle, that oatmeal dry aroma, and the dry feel in the mouth- all of which says lambic so well and leaves your mouth feeling scrubbed clean, but you also get mouth watering tropical fruit.

Alone that fruit would feel just like alcohol fruit juice, a style that is fun but wears out its welcome quickly. Backed by the wine like character as it does here, it just boasts a tremendous complexity that transcends the wine comparison used so often for lambics. This could only be done as a beer, and more than that only as a lambic. There is a weight to it that belies the dry wine character and gives it depth.

Utterly refreshing, utterly complex. One of the finest geuzes I’ve had the fortune to be able to try.

Background: Broke this open as a reward for myself after doing a massive clean up job on the apartment, chucking out or recycling everything I didn’t need. Took best part of a day. Picked up from Independent Spirit, this is a blend of lambic from (deep breath) 3 Fonteinen, Boon, Timmermans, Oud Beersel, Lindemans, De Troch, De Cam, Hanssens and Tilquin. I may have spelled some of those wrong knowing me. Whew. Of those Tilquin is the only one I have not tried before. Incidentally, the cork on this popped out nice and easy. Wish more did that.

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Tasting Notes: Lindemans: Gueuze Lambic: Curvee Rene

Lindemans: Gueuze Lambic: Curvee Rene (Belgium: Lambic Gueuze: 5.5% ABV)

Visual: Grain gold. Large loose bubbled white head.

Nose: Horse blankets. Walnuts. Apricot skin. Lightly sweet.

Body: Tart. Apricot. Apple sours. Peanuts. Dry feeling.

Finish: Sour apples. Dry and acidic. Squeezed lemon. Moderate nuttiness and white wine.

Conclusion: Getting used to lambics can be hard to do, but is definitely worth it. It’s nice that once you get used to the more hardcore beers in the style then beers like this seem so much open than they did at first. This is a very dry example of the style and particularly wine like.  It does bring a few twists of its own to the table though.

The tart and dryness comes along with the usual horse blankets aroma and dry nuttiness. What’s good is that it adds an apricot sweetness that it hints at beneath the main flavours. It is not a powerful part of the character, but its the component that stands out the most from the pack. When mixed with the lemon freshness it keeps the beer at a very drinkable balance without inducing mouth puckering.

It isn’t on the sweeter end of the lambics, nor Cantillon sharp. It keeps a place to either help acclimatise someone who has got past the first baby steps into lambics, or a place to relax for those who have faced the full range.  At that point the wine like character is very graceful.

It is fresh and drinkable despite its very dry character. It shows the range of the style well and keeps itself smooth despite it’s natural tartness. Very well balanced.

A well defined and moderately punching lambic of good character.

Background: One of Michael Jackson’s 500 great beers. Drunk on a very warm day, just slightly chilled down.  After Cantillon tasting I think I’ve managed to get used to the lambic sourness and have been happily enjoying the others of the style.

Tasting Notes: Lindemans: Framboise

Lindemans: Framboise (Belgium: Fruit Lambic: 2.5% ABV)

Visual: Clear bright strawberry red. Medium peach/strawberry red bubbled froth. Easy to tease more head with a quick swirl.

Nose: Lots of raspberries, sweet and obvious at great distance. Mashed raspberries as you get closer, with a soda drink fizzy freshness. Slight wet twigs and cheese.

Body: Syrupy strong raspberry, very thick textured and full fruitiness. Very strong with light almost strawberry touches.

Finish: Lots of raspberries and fruit acidity. Almost a sense of sour blueberries and some cheese. Apple juice light acid end and an almost horse blankets air.

Conclusion: A lambic that really lays the fruit on heavy.  Initially it seems too syrupy, but after a few moments it seems more to be just the impact of such a large dose of fruit flavour.

Has quite a dry back and the flavour hangs around long after the last sip is done, has a bit of weight to it as well.  Whilst I could not identify it at the time, I saw someone reference it having an almost tobacco style and I wish I had thought of that one myself as it was definitely true.

The lambic sourness is shut out for the most part, but it is still a more complex beast than it seems at first sight, with a massive sweet front and heavy back.

More for fans of the fruit than the lambic but still good.

Tasting Notes: Lindemans: Tea Beer

Lindemans: Tea Beer (Belgium: Lambic: 3.5% ABV)

Visual: Mildly carbonated hazy blond gold.

Nose: Lemon, iced tea , sour acidity and crushed leaves.

Body: Sweet syrup, iced tea and red bull. Lemon sherbet and sorbet.

Finish: Lemon, tea, strawberry and leaves.

Conclusion: Very odd, someone’s mixed a lambic and an iced tea in a beer, or so it seems at least. On opening the bottle you can’t help but notice the iced tea character which just gushes out, and it wears it well.

Another quirky and interesting beer out of Belgium – part of the reason why I hold the country to be the best for beer in the world, and I don’t think I will ever get bored of trying their newest oddity. This particular beer won’t set the world alight, but it does help you rethink what can actually be done with beer, and is another good beer for the person who claims that there will never be a beer they like.

We should welcome these innovations and hope that more brewers produce such eccentric joys.