OWA Yuzu Lambic
OWA Brewery SPRL

April 2017: Shared 750 ml corked & capped green bottle, vintage 2013, at local tasting, thanks to gunnar. Bottle No. 481 out of 1200. ABV is 5.5%. Golden to orange colour, small white head. Lovely aroma of yuzu fruit, lemons and farmhouse, hints of spices. Moderate carbonation. Flavour of yuzu, lemons, brettanomyces, hints of spices. Astringent. Very, very good.

 

 

 

Bottle: Poured a clear amber color lambic with no carbonation. Aroma of heavy funky notes with barnyard notes and tart lemony notes are also perceptible. Taste is a nice mix of heavy funky notes with some barnyard notes and sour/acid lemony notes. Body is about average with no carbonation as it is usually the case with lambic. Drinkability is low with weird sour and heavy funky mix.

Poured at a bottle share. Pours a clear orange. Nose is tequila, licorice, and mint. Definitely unique, although not my favorite smell. Taste is mint, bitter, rubbing alcohol, cinnamon. The Alcohol is very detectable. Mouthfeel is dry. Overall, an interesting take on the style, but not my favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

A 375ml corked, capped and paper wrapped bottle, 2015 vintage, with a best before end date of January 2020. Poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.

Appearance: It poured a clear golden copper colour with no head and no lacing.

Aroma: Funk, wood and mineral with lots of citrus orange, sour yuzu and lemon.

Taste: Tart and very sour yuzu plus lemon peel, with a hint of wood and vinegar.

Mouthfeel: Acidic, light to medium bodied with light to no carbonation.

Overall: It started out kind of rough for me, but definitely got better the more I drank it and tasted better than its aroma. Its worth a try if you enjoy sour and/or lambic beer. Love the artwork though!

2015 Vintage. White head. Murk copper hued gold.

Lots of stank and funk here. Sweaty gym socks as another user put it describes this well. Acidic with a very odd fruit flavor. Basement musk. Oily. Leather. Lemon lime flavor. Finishes with some sweetness.

A very odd beer. This one is tough to drink, but it grows on you a little.

Too bad this beer isn't made with lambic from another brewery as I think it would be much better.

 

 

 

BOTTLE purchased in Brussels earlier today for 12 euro. 2015 vintage. 12 euro/37,5cl. Green glass. Best before 09/2020. Comes with a yellow paper droop over the crown cap, which is affixed with twine. The unbranded crown cap covers an internally housed cork.

5.50% ABV.

Served chilled into stemware.

The cork required CONSIDERABLE effort to remove. Hot damn.

HEAD: None whatsoever.

BODY: Hazy murky pale copper. Looks dirty and unappealing. I see no yeast or yuzu peel floating within.

It's a poor appearance for a lambic, but I'm optimistic.

AROMA: Dirty gym sock funkiness. Light acid. Sulfur. Obvious off-notes.

I find no sourness whatsoever, nor any tartness. Not the light refreshing fresh citrus aroma I hoped for.

Hot damn those off-notes are strong.

Aromatic intensity is average (thankfully).

TASTE & TEXTURE: Some yuzu does enter the fold, and the sourness hits in the third act - ~4/10 in terms of intensity. Dirty De Troch lambic is evident here. Acidic. Dirty gym sock funkiness is quite pungent, robbing the beer of any clean refreshing characteristics. Off-flavours are certainly present - green apple, acetaldehyde, some phenols (which I often hear described as "band-aid" - but I despise that descriptor). The off-flavours really destroy this beer; it's direly imbalanced. Lemon rind, damp wood, maybe some faint oxidation. Badly built.

Smooth, wet, light-bodied, perfectly carbonated. Not oily, gushed, hot, astringent, boozy, scratchy, rough, harsh, or sticky. Thickness and heft on the palate is right for the style. The acidity is nice.

It's subpar for a fruited lambic, but then any Belgian lambic tends to be above average in terms of the style (if we allow that non Senne valley beers in the style can be called "lambic style" or the like). In any case, this is an above average beer outside of style conventions; it's just a shame that it's merely above average due to the flaws noted above because this beer had such potential.

OVERALL: Those who like their lambics dirty and off will enjoy this brew. De Troch's lambic has a poor reputation for a reason, and this is brewed (blended) with De Troch lambic, so expect more of the same. The yuzu can't quite punch through the off-flavours and filthy gym sock taste, but it tries. Somewhat difficult to drink given its questionable quality, but I'm sure there are many lambic lovers out there for whom this will be right up their alley. I am definitely not one of them, but I like where OWA's heart is; this is a great premise for a lambic. It's a shame no one except De Troch contributed the constituent lambic...this could be incredible with Hanssens, 3 Fonteinen, et al. Oh well...

Low C+ (3.06) / ABOVE AVERAGE

 

 

2013. Lime and perfume. Lots of zest on a swirl. Very floral / perfumed flavor. Solid pithy bitterness in the finish. Captures yuzu quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

750 mL bottle poured into a snifter.

Appearance - Hazy golden orange. Small white head. Very brief. Thin collar.

Smell - Very citrusy. Lemony. Orange. Grapefruit. Very interesting. Acidic. Not much lambic, though.

Taste - Very citrusy. Lemon. Grapefruit. Woody. More citrus. Pleasantly sour.

Mouthfeel - Very crisp and refreshing. Medium carbonation.

Overall - Well it's all yuzu. I can't say that's bad. No complexity to the lambic, though.

 

Poured from 750mL bottle (ordered from Belgium) into a Duvel glass.

Almost totally flat.
Smells strongly of lemon rind. (Without knowing the actual ingredients, my friends were guessing other citrus fruits.)
Taste is floral, citrusy.
Very sour, but has a surprisingly smooth mouthfeel... might have something to do with its flatness.
Tasty and original.

 

Review/rating #3000!
Bottle 0129/1200 (750ml).

Cap was rusty and decrepit, and there was some liquid on top of the cork, but there was no problem with the carb or freshness. Decanted into an OWA pokal. Orange-honey color, hazy, with a thin white head that receded to a nice ringlet and held there, leaving some lines of lacing on the glass. Musty, earthy aroma, lots of dried lemon peel, horseblanket, and some wet wood. A nice tartness up front in the taste, a good dose of tangy lemon juice and peel, quite drying, musty grass, leather, freshly chopped wood, with a slight crackery malt presence. Nice! Light-medium body, perfectly adequate carbonation, crisp and dry mouthfeel. Complex and tasty. I liked this one a lot and I'm looking forward to trying the others from OWA.