Oude Gueuze
Hanssens Artisanaal bvba

 

 

A: crystal clear; deep gold in color; no head or lacing;

S: vinegar, tartness, acidic;

T: there is a balance between vinegary funk and tartness; toward the end, some oaky white wine comes through;

M: medium bodied; almost no carbonation; very dry finish;

O: a very interesting beer; 2014 vintage; I wish there was more carbonation;

Copenhagen 28/4 2020. 37,5 cl corked bottle from Belgisk Bryg, Emdrup Mosevej, Kbh. NV. Label is made out to look like some ancient brown-ish pergament with gothic letters.

Pours unclear yellow with so small a white head that it is nearly no head at all. Looks like a glass of cider or apple juice. No lacing.

Aroma is intense with a sweet, fruity decay and strong sour odor chiming in. Rotting, sweet apples. Vinous sourness with unripe berries. Vinegar. Light funky odor in the background.

Medium strong carbonation. Thin, oily texture.

Flavor is intense with a light sweetness followed by a strong vinous sourness. Acidic. Aftertaste is sour. Lingering. Finish is bone-dry.

Intense and quite aggressive Lambic with a strong acidity.

Pours an amber golden color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has brett and fruit hints
Taste has pleasant Brett and fruit flavors
A light bodied decently carbonated beer
A nice Geuze

Purchased at Carwyn Cellars in Thornbury in June 2024 and drunk in January 2025.

L: The beer is a thick apricot-orange with a thin smattering of white head around the rim of the glass. No carbonation can be seen.

S: Sour, tart and solvent-like, with funky vintage cheese. Not particularly pleasant, but not unexpected for the style.

T: The taste is extremely tart, acetic and harsh with underripe crabapples and a large helping of nail polish. Very unenjoyable. The sourness lingers and burns my gullet, chest and stomach. There is some respite from the acidity as the beer warms, but the drop in that aspect accentuates the nail polish. I read other reviews that talk about the fine balance and light acidity of this beer, so I'm not sure what happened to my bottle. This is a drain pour.

M: The body is thin, and the finish is long and extremely puckering.

O: This is the 2021 vintage, and perhaps it needed another few years in the bottle to mellow. But based on what I'm drinking, this is really one of the worst beers I've ever had.

Cheers!
#643

 

Gueuze! This is an excellent representation of the style. First thoughts.... sour and funky!
That's what I want. I want a normal natty light beer drinker to think "there is something off with this beer, what happened to it?..."

Barnyard Funk. Gorgeous dark gold color. It reminds me of a Sauterene wine with the sharp notes to it. A little bit of vanilla and honey in there. Would I drink 10 of these in a night? No way, I would need a bottle of tums.
Do I love a few of them? Absolutely.

2014 bottle, this aged extremely well.

This one pours a slightly hazy golden orange color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells soft, hay like funk, stone fruit, orange peel, and white wine.

Most the Hanssens lambics I’ve had in the past have been extremely acidic and way too funky – I wouldn’t have assume nearly a decade of time in the bottle would soften the acidity, I would have honestly assumed the acidity would ramp up. But somehow this has mellowed right down, with a very light acidity, and a really nice soft stone fruit like sweetness – peach, orange, and lemon, with oaky white wine, and a touch of hay like and grassy funky bitterness.

This is light bodied, soft, and pretty drinkable, for the style.

I enjoyed this significantly more than I usually like this blendery.

Orange color, quite clean, off white foam, good.
Complex smell, fruity notes, gueuze notes, some baby sick, leather, strawberry-wine.
Sourness, right, quite intense, with spikes of acetic.
Not too right, lack balance.

 

 

Look - orange syrup not head ing lacing
Smell - very earthy tart citrus grainy slight chemical
Taste - funky dry earthy grainy
Feel - medium body light carb slight syrup
Overall - this must be old and wonder how much better it could.be young

12.7oz corked and caged bottle. Dating badly smudged, but at least 4 years old.

Looks okay in the glass. Hazy dull orange body. Head dissipates very quickly, no lacing.

Somewhat funky on the nose, even a little cheesy. Barest hint of green apple.

On tasting, a little dry, quite sour. Mild funk, more green apple than the nose suggests.

Mouth barely reaches medium, finish a lasting dry sourness, spikes of bitterness now and then.

Overall, has its merits, but not as good as I was hoping for. Cork was a bit grubby on the edges, perhaps a mild contamination issue?

12.7oz green corked & caged bottle notched BOTTLED IN D 2016 (nearly 6 years old) poured into a teku glass at fridge temp 6% ABV. The beer pours mostly bright, soft medium amber in color with short lived, nearly white head. The head recedes to a few scattered bubbles about the perimeter of the glass. No lacing. The aroma is intense (like you can smell it while taking the picture) lemon, orchard fruit, horse blanket, funky cheese and vinegar. The taste is sour, overwhelming so to my palate, but I don't generally care for sour beer. Digging past my initial instinct to quit this bottle immediately, I get waves of citrus, big vinegar, and funky ass bleu cheese. Mouthfeel is thin bodied, highly carbonated and bone dry. Overall, I will capitulate to the BA overall rating of world class for a Lambic Gueuze and rate it accordingly. However, I would not serve this to a sworn enemy dying of thirst...

 

12.7oz green bottle. Label has bottling date as 'D' (December) '2018'.
Cloudy, pale amber/apricot colored body. Brief off white head. No lacing.
Aroma is leather and grass. Very fragrant. Like its body color there is a hint of stone fruit apricot.
Taste is sour, with tobacco and leather flavors. Also some cut hay. There is the apricot fruit here. The intensity mellows in the aftertaste, with a hint of fruit and oak remaining.
Tart mouth feel, with a drying sensation. Very good carbonation.
Somewhat like a sour white wine, but still somewhat complex.