Oude Gueuze Tilquin à L'Ancienne
Gueuzerie Tilquin

CraigDeMoss from Kansas

4.24/5  rDev -2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

350ml 17-18 vintage into a Grimm tulip taster, served around 40-45 F

Golden deep-orange with a slight haze leaning more toward translucent. A half finger effervescent head

Sour yeast, earthy oak, faint lemon and lavender, some basil and rosemary as it warms

Upfront bitter grapefruit and mellow oak, lemon and grapefruit rind, sour candy if you’re imaginative.

Good carbonation, somewhat drying and light to medium body, smooth at times like honey.

Overall a beautiful beer

May 24, 2020

VoodooBear from Puerto Rico

4.34/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Presentation: 750mL green bottle with a best before date printed on the back label and a vintage date on the neck label. Served in a lambic glass.

Appearance: The rocky, two finger head goes away fairly quickly and leaves behind a lot of lacing all over the glass. It's a slightly hazy, bright, straw color.

Smell: It's a powerful, rustic aroma of fresh hay, lemon, apricot and damp wood. In the background, some flowery and grassy notes show up.

Taste: It's very tart and sour right away. There's fresh lemon, green grapes and green apple. As the fruitiness subsides, it finishes with earthy, oak and grain notes along with some yeast funk.

Mouthfeel: It's medium bodied and relatively creamy thanks to the refined, soft, medium carbonation. However it's still quite refreshing. It gets cloying after a while as expected. The finish is dry.

Overall: What else can be said about Tilquin that hasn't already been said? Even though they're relative newcomers to the lambic scene in the grand scheme of things, their blending produces a fantastic Oude Geuze.

May 17, 2020

jlindros from Massachusetts

4.4/5  rDev +0.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Not sure how I haven't reviewed this gem. 2018/2019
Pours a light fizzy head with almost no retention, typical for gueuze, without pouring the funk yet, crystal clear golden tan color

Nose brings awesome funk, more funky than many of the other greats, cheesy funk, little barnyard funk, acetic and lactic acid and probably other acids, a bit of generic fruitiness, little malty note, dank cheese, but quite nice

Taste brings fruity flavors up front, some apple cider, pome fruits, little stone fruit even, then into the acidic bacteria funk, acetic acid with a little lemony citrus, and a little creamy lactic acid, fair amount of funk in general, barnyard and alittle wet blanket funk, a touch of buttery oak as well, little flemmy but pretty good otherwise

Mouth is med bod, higher foamy carb, fair acidity

Overall a great gueuze as expected, more of the barnyard funk in the nose, more acidity and fruit on the taste, great one to enjoy as usual

May 11, 2020

Snowcrash000 from Germany

4.17/5  rDev -4.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours a clear, deep golden amber coloration with a medium, foamy, lasting head. Smells of light doughy malt, estery fruit notes of green apple, pear and white grape and just a hint of funk and oak also coming through. Taste is a good balance between light, doughy malt, strong estery fruit notes of tart green apple, pear, white grape, gooseberry and a hint of red berries, as well as some hay and a light citric acidity, with just a hint of funk and oak also coming through. Finishes quite dry, with a light tartness and some green apple, white grape and hay lingering in the aftertaste. Effervescent mouthfeel with a medium body and carbonation.

Not quite what I expected, being quite dominated by the estery fruit and a stronger malt presence than I'm used to from a Geuze, while the acidity and funk are relatively low-key, especially for a bottle that is over 5 years old. Still, there is a certain depth of flavor to the estery fruit here, with quite distinct and varied notes, but white grape and gooseberry standing out particularly, lending a certain white wine character to this along with the subtle oak notes and while this starts out with a certain malt sweetness, it actually turns bone-dry in the finish. The acidity and funk may not be quite as pronounced here as I would have liked, but integrate themselves well into the overall flavor profile, creating a nice subtle balance. Not one of my personal favorites, but still a quite a profound and complex example of the style that is a bit heavier on the estery fruit than the funk.

Mar 29, 2020

BGDrock from Canada

4.28/5  rDev -1.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Orangy-gold body, like an apricot candy, unfiltered and hazy. Rapidly forms a bone white head, airy and full, with a couple minutes strong retention before reducing to a thin film.
Blend of fresh & funky apple wafting from the glass. Mild acidity. Straw, sourdough bread.
Fantastic ride of flavour. Fresh orchard fruit & orange juice, low residual sugar, balanced by a lingering palate-cleansing bitterness like orange rind with its pith, and medium acidity. The pithy bitterness, unpleasant in any other context, is a great foil to the fruitiness, funk, and acidity here. Addictive. Medium body and carbonation. Remarkably easy drinking, no cloying sugars or sense of alcohol.

The variety & interplay of discintive flavours is exciting, even if the flavour isn't particularly complex, if you catch my drift. It's no subtle brew, it's got punch.

Mar 20, 2020

Beginner2 from Illinois

3.88/5  rDev -11%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

If you are a fan of this style, then don't read my review.
I've now had 11 of the top 15 rated Gueuze. None I gave a rating above the BA average. And just to show how consistent I am, not one of the 17 I've rated are above the BA average. I must have a bias. And I must not be rating these guys relative to their style as I try to do for other styles. And I have not had a traditional Gueuze since 2016, and that was a Boon and a Cantilion because I was checking off the world's Best Beer lists. So lately, I'm clearly avoiding gueuze (possibly because I feel assaulted by the American Wild trend.) Enough of my prejudices.

I'm Looking at a slightly above-average Looker; an interesting orange pale. Smells overwhelm me with vinegar at first, then much later I can start to sort it out after I've Tasted a very cidery, tart. I do like that brett is mute and barely noticeable. It makes for a more tolerable finish and mouth.

Gueuzerie Tilquin claims to be the only blender in French speaking Belgium. OK. Their website doesn't tell me much more, although it does have an English button.

Tilquin paired OK with Bob's World Famous Veggie soup. But it was no saison. As part of my beer diet, I drank only half of this bomber. Who will drink the other half?

Mar 10, 2020

5toutman75 from Illinois

4.43/5  rDev +1.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

As good as I expected. I love the balance of tart and funk. Medium mouthfeel with the right amount of carbonation. Super complex on the tongue. I might like 3 Fonteinen a touch more and would need to try it next to Cantillon to see who’d win of the big 3 for me.

Feb 17, 2020

BlurryVisi0n from New York

4.27/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Served in a tulip glass from the bottle.

appearance: Slight hazy gold to amber body with medium bubbles to the body. Head came off a touch off-white with an initial rise of a subtle 6mm off the body.

Smell: Yeast aroma which feels a bit lemony.

Taste: Sour right from the beginning with extra yeast and slight rye feel mixed with green grape juice. It's a little bit all over the place.

Mouth: Full body with a medium carbonation coming off extra sticky with a sour finish.

Overall: beautiful palate cleansing brew which I reserve for in the middle of a couple of beers. Super refreshing coming off like a yeasty lemonade which is super easy to drink.

Feb 11, 2020

octortus from Canada

4.3/5  rDev -1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

750 mL Bottle. ABV 6.4%.
Appearance: Veiled honey/gold, Half a finger of off white head, Little retention, Medium carbonation, Collar remains.
Aroma: Barnyard funk, Nicely integrated Belgian yeast, Musty, Lemon, Fantastic balance.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, Dry finish.
Flavour: Not as sour as expected, Citrus zest, Slight cherry, Spice, Slight stone fruit, Barnyard funk after first pass.
Overall:

Review: 104

Jan 03, 2020

Gajo74 from New York

4.37/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

On tap at the Jeffrey, NYC.
Pours an elegant looking white wine/champagne looking color. A wispy head soon dissipates, however, there is a ring of lace throughout.
The nose opens relatively clean, however, soon there are notes of sweet breads and blueberries. Surprisingly, the tartness in the aroma is relatively light. Additional aromatic notes of sweet grass, hay, melon, and honey.
In contrast, the taste is significantly tart with notes of lemon, sour berries and spicy lime. The rustic flavors evoke spicy wood and peppery spices. The wheat adds smoothness to the mouthfeel, while there is even a some hops bitterness. Vinous overall, with notes of white grape, green apples, white wine vinegar and dry cider. Medium to light bodied, crisp and yet with a soft malt backbone. Champagne like effervescence and a mouth puckeringly tart and bone dry finish.
A delightful and complex lambic. I could definitely go back to this.

Oct 16, 2019

Lone_Freighter from Vermont

4.8/5  rDev +10.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Top of the bottle says "2016" on one side and the other "2017."
This was poured into a pokal.
The appearance was a fairly bright yellow/copper color with a slim transparency. The foamy white head seemed to topple off fairly quick. No lace.
The aroma had some white wine, wine vinegar, red wine, some raspberry esters, funky character, sweet woody tones, green apple tartness, sour citrus rind and some sweet oak bliss. Some barnyard hay.
The flavor seemed to pull all of those prior mentioned aromas together through funky sweet, ample sour, a pulled tart character, adding in some lemon, and earthy funky tone. No aftertaste of anything, just barren altogether!
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with no such sessionability whatsoever. The tart to sour and funky earthiness grips my tongue with an obsession of not letting go but even though I haven't too many gueuzes, I do understand enough to say I accepted this sort of 'feel' here. I'd say a fairly quick tannic lemony tart crisp finish.
Overall, I like this gueuze, I'd definitely have again.

Jul 27, 2019

BerryKumquat from California

4.61/5  rDev +5.7%
look: 4.75 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

L: A standard golden yellow.
S: Very strong wood notes.
T: Oddly light rather than typical overpoweriing flavor.
F: Light and crisp rather than usual bold or loud notes.
O: Excellent gueuze with it's different array of soft notes.

Feb 15, 2019

DaveMaciolek21 from New Jersey

4/5  rDev -8.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Lambics often have a tartness which can be an acquired taste. In this blended beer, where 1, 2, and 3 year old lambics are combined, not to mention the additional in-the-bottle refermentation, the tartness is smoothed to a silky sheen, for a taste just about anyone can get behind.

Jan 01, 2019

WunderLlama from Massachusetts

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Corked and caged bottle poured into a rejuvenated glass

Clear copper liquid, scant ring

Aroma of tart crispness, whiff of apples

Tart Brett, funky, citrus with a whisper of oak on the taste

Low sudsing , tart dry finish

Good beer

Dec 28, 2018

KooVee from Finland

4.44/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

2017-2018, 7%.

Medium golden, foam dissipates relatively quickly.

Nose has upon first pour musty cellar notes and a fair amount of funk, but this changes to a steady but lesser amount of barnyard, a bit of citrus, and especially an inescapable impression of the aroma of white wine.

In the taste the citrus comes up front and settles on a distinct impression of grapefruit. Aftertaste combines brett with pleasant but considerable acidity. As the beer opens and warms, stone-fruit and cellar notes rise. Mouthfeel is smooth for the style.

A very good gueuze of the tart and citrusy type.

Dec 16, 2018

WickedBeer from Alabama

4.37/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

2016-2017, 6.4% ABV, Best By 22/03/2027.

Imported by TWELVE PERCENT LLC Brooklyn, NY

This beer pours a beautiful deep golden yellow, almost amber, slowly poured and without any head bubbling up. I’ve read that this year of Oude Gueuze was noticeably flatter than usual. I got that vibe right away from the lack of active carb or head produced from this beer straight from the bottle.

The nose has a nice initial combination of musty white grapes and tart, zesty citrus. On the back end are even tones of earth and that horse blanket aroma, with a lightly ammoniated, pungent moldy quality. Complex, funky, and wonderful.

Dry, funky, white wine and acidic fruit. Zesty flavors of sour grapefruit and lime are quickly picked out. Those organic, earthy qualities emerge nicely in the flavors, complimenting with notes of oak and barnyard hay. The gueuze style when done correctly is so complex and always tough to pick out every nuance. So good.

Tart, lightly acidic. Funky, with some noticeable tannins and a warm finish. Champagne-like in its carbonation and bone-dry finish.

Oct 24, 2018

Hyptochrons from Massachusetts

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

wonderful beer, tart, funky, crisp, dry, effervescent, slightly fruity and has some nice white wine character. great mouthfeel and super refreshing ... nothing is better on a hot evening and I imaging this would be an excellent beer to drink with a variety of foods.

Jul 03, 2018

Bruno74200 from France

4.6/5  rDev +5.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

L - slightly hazy amber, thin head

S - Citrus, some funk

T - quite complex, very dry and nice amount of tartness, some citrus, not too funky

M - champagne-like mouthfeel

O - A great Gueuze

Mar 27, 2018

Holderness from Massachusetts

4.11/5  rDev -5.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Aged for a year.

Pours a completely clarified pale orange with a scant one finger of white head produced with moderately aerated pour. Some retention and good lacing. Aromas are equal parts funky, vinous, sour-fruity, floral, and sulfurous. Flavors largely follow the nose, with maybe a hint of skunkiness in the back. Tartness is not overbearing and complements the apple and raspberry flavors that are present. Tasty but not particularly complex. Clean, effervescent mouthfeel with no hop bitterness to speak of. An excellent meal-pairing beer

83/100

Mar 10, 2018

IvoryFoxhole from Virginia

4.28/5  rDev -1.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

500 mL bottle dated 2016/2017, with a best by date of 9/2/2027. Poured into Aslin anniversary glass.

L: Deep, clear golden. Very nice. Looks like a Sauternes. Not much head upon pouring, degrades into just a thin ring.

S: So here is what I get: Yeasty, oaky, sour apple, chardonnay grape. Perhaps a touch too sour and perhaps that mellows with aging? Probably should have gotten another bottle. But this is awfully good as is.

T: Definite chardonnay notes here from the oak barrel. Green apple, slightly sour but not as much as nose would indicate. Seems a tiny bit raw despite the aging it has already had, but still a real treat here on the East Coast.

F: Light to mediumish body. Pretty lively carbonation. Very solid construction. Sour might be just a tad out of balance, but it's hard to say. Nice and crisp and pretty easy to drink.

O: Definitely looking forward to trying more of these over the future.

Dec 31, 2017

richj1970 from Alabama

4.35/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from 750 ml bottle dated 2/23/2017

A: Golden yellow tending towards orange with one finger white head that settles fairly quickly to a thin cap. Light lacing.

S: Lemon, lime, green apples, pears, white grapes, and a little earthy funk. There is almost a white wine quality to the aroma.

T: Tart lemon and lime. Subtle sweetness with apple, grapes, and pear. Hints of oak and wet hay.

M: Medium body with light carbonation. Finish is a little tart and dry.

O: Excellent beer and thanks to @larryi86 for the chance to try it!

Dec 18, 2017

VABA from Virginia

4.35/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

A clear amber color with a nice head and some lacing. Distinctive aroma with a complex mixture that is hard to decipher. A moderately tart beer with fruity hints.

Dec 07, 2017

Wasatch from Colorado

4.46/5  rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Thanks goes out to larryi86 for this brew.

12.7 oz. Bottle
Caged/Corked
Best Before: 14/02/2027

Poured into a Trillium glass a pretty nice clean/clear golden dark yellow color, pretty nice carbonation, with a pretty nice one-finger creamy/foamy/fizzy white head, which leaves some sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, yeasty, lemon, nice funkyness, tart, slight oak, some spicyness. The taste is malty, yeasty, funky, nice lemon note, tart, nice touch of oak, spicy. Medium body, ABV hidden very nicely, with a nice little dry/bitter finish. Overall, my first from this brewery. Very tasty, true to style. Thanks Larry for the chance.

Nov 27, 2017

The_Kriek_Freak from Pennsylvania

4.06/5  rDev -6.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

It pours orange with a very thin head that goes away almost instantly. The aroma is acidic and funky, with some very light lemony notes. The taste is sour and bitter with very little in terms of sweetness. It feels a bit unbalanced but the more you drink it the more you appreciate it. Medium body.

Nov 03, 2017

MonDak_Joe1953 from Minnesota

4.49/5  rDev +3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from 12.7 oz bottle into glass. Hazy, orange body.
No head and no lacing.
Complex aroma, fermented, lime, apple, pear, barnyard funk.
Tastes like wine, dry and oaky, grape and oak, very dry.
Smooth, drink through body.
Unlike almost all U.S. brews, very Belgian, total Lambic. So close in aroma and taste to wine. Sour and delicious.

Oct 22, 2017