Score
7.73
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Bottle shared. Rhubarb, funky, wheat, lemon, light mineral. Medium sour, lighter sweet and bitter. Good!
Blushing peachy colour with lasting fluffy white head. The red currants really come through at first with an obvious tang. Then later, the (obviously sweeter) grape element that balances it out well. Not punchy, just very supple and delicate overall.
Pours unclear, peachy amber. Small white head. Scent is rich, fruity (ripe), medium intense fruits. Very brett forward, wood. Taste is tart, full, complex sours. Bredd, wood, berry-fruityness. Touch of apple. Nice, very nice ! perhaps my favorite by this brewery so far ?
Re-rated after doing this again in a 9-beer lambiek fabriek line up, this ended as the third favorite, remains one of their very best. upping the score from 7.8 to 8.
The newest Lambiek Fabriek to date, though a rhubarb lambic and an apple lambic are rumored to be on their way. This one combines two very different fruits, redcurrant and white Muscaris grape (developed in Germany in 1987); since Muscaris is known to produce citrusy and crisply acidic wines, I guess it can work very well in a lambic. Bottle (75 cl with cork and crown cap) under pressure, but no gushing or anything like that - just a fizzing sound for the first instants after opening. Densely moussy, membrane-lacing, medium thick, vaguely pinkish-tinged off-white head, closed and remarkably stable head resting on a hazy deep amberish orange blonde beer with fiery reddish tinge. Aroma of grape skins, redcurrants freshly picked from the bush and even redcurrant bush leaves but subtly so, wet hay, dry plywood, sour apples, dusty attic, oxidized dry white wine, unripe apricots, old orange peel, hints of green garden weeds, old newspapers, funky farmland and urine hints faraway in the background but growing stronger later on. Crisp onset, lots of lively minerality and sharp but small-bubbled cava-like effervescence playing around a 'white' fruitiness, indeed with a juicy touch of white grape and a sharper acidic side effect of redcurrant, over estery notes of green apple and gooseberry; the grapes provide this delicate sweetish note hidden within, always a sign of elegance and balance in fruit lambics like this. Supple body, quite lean for the given ABV but noticeably 'full', with a clean bready core buried under yoghurty lactic acidity and, more than anything else, delicate but expressive grape and redcurrant fruitiness - again feeling like 'white fruit'; a lemon juice-like sourness appears in the finish, but a soft woodiness and juicy 'grapeyness' keep things in check and block excessive acidity. A clear but well-measured Brett-induced funkiness (the proverbial horseblanket) plays in the background without disturbing the fruitiness too much; ends dry and tart, but also juicy and rounded, with the fruity flavours lingering for a long time after swallowing. A vague note of warming, wine-like alcohol is somewhat noticeable but never really interferes with the flavours. As genuine and elegant as can be, with the high effervescence adding to a general 'apéritif' experience; spring is in the air with a fruit lambic like this, even if we are still in February. This will perform very well in the early spring days we can start longing for here in gloomy Belgium - the storm called Eunice that raged over the country earlier today is long forgotten after a glass of this new Lambiek Fabriek concoction. Very clever combination of fruits - more so even than in that Pluri-Elle - with a highly aristocratic, gracious but powerful and memorable lambic as a result. Lovely.
Good light pink head, fed by well-carbonated clear pale terra cotta beer. Beautiful horseblanket and discreet red/pink fruit nose. More delicate fruit - lambic blend, faint horseblanket, lactic acid, red/pink berries. I note the redcurrant and grape, I was thinking of whitecurrant especially and even lingonberry. With a dash of lemon. Light, refreshing, almost spritzy carbonation. Superb!! Utterly different from what I expected from the ultra-sour redcurrant, but turning out refined and delicate.