Zenne y Frontera Blend no. 53
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen

 

2024-03-10
750ml corked/caged bottle split between several sample glasses. Dated 17/06/2021.

Pours clear dark yellow, short lived flash of head on the pour. Lots of visible carbonation. Smell is oak, meyer lemon, mild funk, smells great.

Taste is strong on oak with a woody bitterness, suggestion of juicy sweetness, but strong acidic sourness leaning toward lemon and stonefruit - apricot and unripe peach.

Mouthfeel is light and dry, quite lively. Very nice.

incredible no doubt, and rare as well, but nowhere near as striking and captivating as the solera blend number 21 i had some years ago, this is just my second one of these blends, and its a totally different beer, different base lambic, different ages, different grain and blend proportions, just the blended lambic and sherry barrel concept as the continuity, from what i can gather. this has a lot of maturity to it, without younger lambic in the blend. a somewhat deeper color than most lambic, more orange and rusty colored than blonde, but still delicate, and rather well carbonated. the aroma on this is wonderful, acidic with some flemish type white wine vinegar character and then the richness of the oak and sherry offsetting some of it, nice wild funk, toasted grain with some deeply earthy layers to it, aged hop and green glass weirdness coming together, bottled in june of 2021, but some of the beer in here must be quite a bit older than that. it has hints in the aroma of roasted chestnut, raw honey, and apple brandy, unique, musty, complex. the flavor is all of this, the sherry is there both early and late, the acidity is tempered compared to the nose and this comes through as slightly sweet at certain points, hints of copper and brass but not metallic in the common sense, a baked warmth to the malt which is holding up well, and a somewhat restrained funkiness later on. burnt orange, toffee, and amaretto as it sits, some oxidation which isnt out of place here, and a peppery element too. love how much is happening here and how it changes throughout. really exciting blend and a wonderful showcase of these barrels, but still somehow not pushing into that oh my god range that the solera blend did for me. i hope to track down a few more of these different combinations to try, i think its insanely cool how much the experiment with the different blends and how so many of them are packaged now, really allows for a lot of learning and its fun to chase them. always a joy drinking beer from these guys, especially the rarities, this was perfect for holiday time!

Bottle. White head. That settles. Golden color.

Very strong. Lots of fortified wine/olorosso/sherry. Has a peat/scotch flavor. The barrels really dominate the lambic here. Very boozy. Minerals, wet oak, wine. It’s good, but I can’t drink a lot of this in one sitting. Very light citrus. White grapes in the finish. Low carb.

 

 

Bottle pour into a taster glass.
Dark gold amber with sparse head that quickly recedes to just a collar. Sherry, oak, and funk. Moderate and pleasingly tart mouthfeel.