Blind Gueuze Tasting

Maryland gets far more Tilquin than Drie Fonteinen in my experience. I could likely find some Tilquin (probably Quetsche) this evening if I wanted. Drie Fonteinen gets here, but disappears quickly and I've never seen their plain gueuze here (only their fruited lambics).

 

Sorry late reply, didn't see the thread till now. Wish I took notes, but seating was a bit packed and I wanted to concentrate on pouring and tasting.

I think we're seeing big time bottle variation on this beer. I've had some incredible bottles in the last 6 months and also some real nasty bottles of this.

About 1-1.5oz pours. More than enough to get a good impression (but not a good enough long impression as some of the beers definitely opened up by the end) but not enough to dull the palate.

I also strongly believe doing flights of 3-4 focuses your attention on the beer. Also the spacing between flights allows you to re-calibrate your palate. If it was a free for all pourfest I'd definitely have the same impression as you.

 

Congrats and thanks for this thread. Obviously there are limits with any tasting. A 1.5 oz pour is really useful for getting to unpick some of the mysteries of these beers. But as I once a product (not beer) marketer explain, side-by-sides aren't the best predictor of longer term preference. His classic example was Pepsi beating Coke in taste tests by being slightly sweeter, but Coke ultimately outselling it, as they figured out when giving people both to take home for a week. Ugh, this is a terrible comparison -- I don't much like any colas. Anyway. One excellent point above made me think of this -- I've also had the experience of Girardin seeming a bit flat and lifeless next to the Oud Beersel in a side-by-side. But I still love it, drink it often, and I also can't help but take into consideration that it's crazy cheap here.