Duck Duck Gooze
The Lost Abbey - The Tasting Room

Review: 2620
Name: Duck Duck Gooze
Brewery: The Lost Abbey Brewing
Location: San Diego, CA
Style: Gueze
ABV: 7%
Canned: 2020
Date: 24 May 2026
Initial Impression:
Another beer I’ve wanted to try for years finally made its way into my glass—Duck Duck Gooze. Seeing this on the menu at The Lost Abbey was one of those “drop everything and order it” moments. Even before the first sip, the aroma coming off the glass told me this beer meant business.
Appearance:
Served at 40°F in a tulip. The pour created an airy, frothy white head about a finger thick with average retention, slowly dissipating and leaving light lacing behind.
The beer pours pale yellow with light golden hues (SRM ~6), is lightly translucent, and glows in the glass. Elegant, refined, and visually spot-on for a gueuze-inspired wild ale.
Aroma:
Bright, expressive, and layered. The fermentation character leads with soft funk, light earthiness, yogurt-like lactic acidity, and a faint sea-air salinity. Supporting notes of lemon rind, gooseberry, hay, crackers, bread crust, floral tones, and subtle herbal character add depth without becoming overwhelming.
The malt profile stays restrained—light toast, breadiness, and faint sweetness—allowing the acidity and wild character to remain the focus. The overall aroma feels intricate yet remarkably clean.
Flavor:
Complex but beautifully controlled. Lemon curd, yogurt-like lactic acidity, gooseberry, peach, hay, grass, floral notes, and subtle herbal tones carry the palate. The funk remains measured rather than aggressive, bringing soft earthiness and restrained Brett-like character without veering into overly barnyard-heavy territory.
The malt backbone contributes light toast, cracker, and breadiness, along with gentle sweetness, helping keep the acidity from becoming sharp or one-dimensional. There’s a wonderful balance between tartness, funk, and drinkability throughout.
Mouthfeel:
Medium-light body with moderate carbonation. Lightly puckering with a soft tannic structure, finishing crisp, dry, and refreshing.
Overall Impression:
Duck Duck Gooze is another exceptional beer from Lost Abbey and a fantastic example of restrained wild ale craftsmanship. The beer delivers complexity and acidity without exhausting the palate, making it dangerously easy to continue sipping.
What impressed me most was how balanced and approachable it remained despite the layered funk and lactic character. I notice the 7% ABV a little more here than in Cable Car, but it never becomes intrusive. Sitting in San Diego weather with a glass of this felt exactly right. Absolutely delicious and a beer I could revisit over and over without burning out my palate.

 

750 mL bottle, 2022 vintage. Enjoyed in a Fort George Lupulin Ecstasy Festival glass (looks like a stemless wine glass).

Look:
The body is luminous peach yellow and slightly cloudy. A loose and sudsy head of white foam collapses almost immediately into a bubbly ring and a thready skin that looks a little like the Crab Nebula. While I'm no expert on gueuze, I know it ought to manage a prouder head of foam than this.

Smell:
The nose starts off sour and oaky, then offers notes of dry white wine, hay, malt vinegar, menthol, lemon yogurt, feta, and a few things I can't quite identify zipping around the corners. As it warms, a tempting sourdough bread note emerges.

Taste:
It opens with a preserved lemon note, sharp and clean and bright. The beer is very dry at first, but as the initial acidity fades a mild lemon yogurt sweetness peeks through. Oak and dry red wine character follow. The middle is a confetti-like burst of impressions: brett funk, oat bread, hay, green crabapples, lemon curd, apricot skin, and...salt? It finishes with lingering tartness and a light, doughy funk on a softly tannic bed of oak. There's also a trace of chalky minerals.

Feel:
The feel is phenomenal. It starts with that acidic bite, then turns gorgeously creamy yet airy, and finishes with a mellow wine-like astringency. Tiny bubbles provide vivacious carbonation.

Overall:
While it started more sour than I like, it mellowed nicely by the end of the glass and displayed a well-balanced collection of harmonizing contrasts. I thought the mouthfeel was especially beautiful. A marvelous experience, and unexpectedly drinkable.

 

Had this June 2019; had Duck Duck Gooze 2009 and 2019 both in 2020. Solid beer!

 

Hazy goldenrod with leggy white film; flowers, candles, canary melon rind and white grape on the nose; biscuit, honeycomb, white balsamic, light oaky vanilla, horse blanket, a hint of honeysuckle, and vague barrel; light, spritzy, dry.

4 4.25 4.5 4.25 4.25

Bright and flowery, with a piquant thread of lemon zest. A bit heavier and woodier than a Belgian version would be. The only thing missing that I can notice is any effect from using red wine barrels.
This is a proper gueuze. Did it benefit from hitting the market back when 3F and Cantillon were extremely hard to come by? Yes. Is it still worth chasing? Also, yes.
Lovely, though I’d be more impressed with it if I hadn’t ever had a bunch of good Brussels sours.

Earns its reputation - especially in isolation.

 

 

(750 ml corked caged bottle, dusty, 2022 vintage, 'ale aged in red wine barrels'; purchased off shelf at The Sanctuary in San Marcos two days ago... decanted into a stemless wine glass)

L: clear, yellow-gold liquid: fizzy, yellow-tinged foam on the pour, threatening to spill over but quickly settling into a thin, fuzzy cap... the foam eventually cracks, but I did get some thick splotches of lace... gets a little cloudier the more it's poured out

S: lemon meringue pie, key lime pie crust, the bready and doughiness of which takes a moment to blossom, but then matches the potency of the funk, while nutty yeast and barrel wood eventually accents the edges... fairly textbook aromas, but certainly an overtone of citrus-kissed floral honey

T: pop of bright, perky tartness upon initial contact swiftly trailed by crackery, grainy malt; just pummels the palate from the outset... settles into a cocktail of these dominant flavors, taking on a Bee's Knees vibe... aftertaste is a dry, tart lemon-honey cough drop thing

F: pinging, puckering bite up front, quickly followed by silky, slow, near slimy malt nectar... the legs and residual drag in the finish never abates, start to finish

O: while it arguably lacks a unique, exotice signature, it's overall pretty damn superb: blending and especially intensity... damn 'fresh' for a gueuze... bit of a hefty price tag, but two sips in I knew I was paying for high quality (2274)