8

Hapu, puuviljane, mõru, tamm, funk, natuke isegi viinamarjane, mõru humalat ka nats. Väga hea, aeg on sellele head teinud. 8% voli katab hästi.

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle @ Ulfborg Gueuze Tasting. Pours clear golden with a big white head. Aromas of bright grapes, floral, green sour apples, funky, hay. Taste has lots of sparkly grapey notes, champagne-like, green apples, light funk.

7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Corked 2011 bottle. Golden color, pours a huge head. Citrus, soft vinous notes, hints of oak. Shy aroma for a geuze. Vinous, soft sour flavor. Citrus, bitter amnonds, oak, red fruit sweeties. Carbonation is soft. Complex enough, but not a great geuze.

8.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

Bottle shared on the roof courtesy of Maakun, thanks! Clear golden with white head. Funky grain, hay, licking armpits, meheheheh of the goat, grassy, apricot, grapemost, vanille, floral honey. Moderate sweet, sour and bitter. Medium body and a lot of fizzy carbonation.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle shared. Clear golden with big fizzy white head. Big funk, light lemon, lots of cellar, sweet malts and bready, light marzipan, canal water, lemon candy too, dust, soft alcohol and grain syrup. Under medium sweet, sour and bitter. Medium bodied. Decent gueuze but a little sweet and alcoholic. Overall quite nice though.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

The "Cuvée" version of the Bzart geuze, seemingly different from the 'regular' Bzart Oude Geuze only in that it uses a 2011 vintage of Oud Beersel Oude Geuze rather than the 2007 vintage Bzart Oude Geuze was based on - one may wonder if its separate entry here is entirely justified, as different geuze vintages as such are not listed as separated entries either... Anyway, doesn't matter, it has been four years or so since I tasted the regular one from a small tasting glass only, so this bottle, one of only 500 according to the back label, offers me the opportunity to delve deeper into this Bzart concept, where Oud Beersel lambics are finished in the same way as champagne or crémant, i.e. a "liqueur de tirage" (a solution of champagne yeast and sugar in - in this case at least, I presume - lambic) is added during bottling to spark refermentation, the bottles are then aged for 13 months (or 'moons', to remain in champagne terms) during which time they are riddled like champagne bottles, and finally disgorged, which happened with my particular bottle in November 2014. After four years of further cellaring elsewhere, it is still full of life: after removing the cork, an ominous 'boiling' sound rose up from the bottle neck, and only ten seconds or so later, the foam came peeping out slowly - so I guess you can call this a very slow gusher. A big, foamy, egg-white, lightly lacing, coarse-bubbled head forms during pouring, dissolving into a thin, off-white moussy ring and eventually close to nothing - but in the process of decreasing, making a whole lot of noise, more so than I ever encountered in any beer, I guess the genie was happy to be left out of the bottle after all those years; underneath shines a pale orange-hued 'old gold' beer, initially lightly hazy but as the bottle gets emptied, showing more and more small, 'dandruff-like' dead yeast flakes which slowly sink to the bottom, with some thin strings of sparkling going the other way meanwhile. Aroma combines Oud Beersel Oude Gueuze with champagne-like traits and signs of oxidation and aging, the latter being not very flattering and reminiscent of very old newspapers and old dry cardboard, a lot of 'dirty old car tire'-ish rubber (yeast autolysis without a doubt) and rusty old iron; underneath, the beauty of the original geuze still shines, hinting at sour wild apples, old lemons, a whole straw bale, very dry and old white wine, stewing rhubarb, green unripe elderberries, camomile dried in a very old herbarium - but indeed with a recognizable effect of 'brut' champagne, cava or crémant, like the 'normal' Bzart Oude Geuze had. Crisp, spritzy onset, probably less spritzy than it was when it was young but still with a lively, though refined and in that sense geuze-befitting carbonation; lots of fresh, bright green apple, even somewhat lemony acidity, drying and very lightly 'burning' a bit in the first sip but quickly softening, shifting to a more 'quietly drying', much more mellow lactic sourness over a supple bready malt and wheat backbone. Still, the sharper fruity acidity lasts well into the finish too, where it meets a late but lingering, leafy and earthy hop bitterness, more so than usual in a traditional geuze, though I have always been under the impression that Oud Beersel has more hop bitterness in its finish than most other traditional lambics - even when the recently deceased Henri Vandervelden was still running the operation. Wood aspects of old wooden casks are obvious, a bit 'dusty' even in combination with the dead yeast; again a powdery, dry, 'brut' champagne-coloured flavour lingers beyond all this, highlighted by a soft glow of warming alcohol. I had geuzes of much more respectable age than this four year old bottle and none of the traditionally made ones showed signs of oxidation and flocks of dead yeast like this one, so I can only conclude that the champagne yeast may work here - combined with the whole hodgepodge of lambic yeasts - in young condition, but not for extended aging. Who knows what happened here on a microbiological level, maybe the whole lambic microflora eventually got disturbed by the champagne yeast and killed it off or something, maybe the bottle has seen less favourable storage conditions in the past four years, in any case I expect a whole lot more from a bottle of geuze at a mere four years of age. So far, these Bzart interpretations of traditional lambic fall a bit short in convincing me and I think I would have enjoyed a regular bottle of Oud Beersel Oude Gueuze more at this age - note to self: drink these Bzart lambics only when young(er). But it is still a geuze, even if non-traditional according to Belgian legislation, and I always enjoy a decent lambic beer thoroughly.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle - pours gold white head - nose/taste of lemon, oaky funk, peppery notes and light horseblanket - medium body

8.6

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7.5

Thanks Huhzubendah for sharing the bottle! Poured into a snifter showing well filtered golden honey with two fingers of clean white foam. The nose shows a strong robust nose of sweet, ripe, and round peaches with light by rich and deep brett. The palate is well carbonated and light bodied. Flavors of juicy peach mixed well with light vanilla and a light tartness. Ending on a white wine bitterness but a resurgence of peach on the aftertaste.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Bottle 750ml. corked. [ As Oud Beersel Bzart Geuze Cuvée ].Clear medium orange yellow color with a large to huge, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting to diminishing, white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy barnyard, leather, farmyard, tart, yeast, champagne yeast. Flavor is moderate sweet and light to moderate acidic with a long duration, tart, barnyard, fruity, citrus - green apples - grapes, champagne yeast. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft to lively. [20160624]