Lindemans Gueuze (375ml Bottle)

Description

Nowadays, Lambic on draught is hard to find. Only in a few pubs in and around Brussels you still can taste the curious sherry-like flavoured beer. Nevertheless, since 1880, Lambic was bottled to simplify transport but also for conservation properties. This method was the birth of Gueuze: Before the bottling of the Gueuze, a blend is made of 2/3 young Lambic and 1/3 old Lambic. The right ratio young/old is depending on the maturation degree (end attenuation) of each of them. The bottles, with the wild-spontaneous yeast flora, are refermented in the cellar (Method Champenoise). After 6 months the Gueuze obtains a golden colour and a cidery, winey palate; reminiscent, perhaps, of dry vermouth with a more complex and natural flavour. It is often served as an happy hour drink in Brussels. It is the traditional beer for carbonade, as well as a beautifully based beverage with seafood or other salty meals. It's also delicious with cream sauces. Beside the traditional Gueuze (the Gueuze Grand Cru "Cuvée René"), there is also a more commercial Gueuze that dominate the market. It is filtered, pasteurized and has a more sweet taste.

Tasting Notes

Pours gold with a thin, white, lingering head. It smells of candi sugar and wild yeast. The flavor is of sweet candi sugar with some tasty fruit notes and the funky yeast. It’s medium bodied with fine, bubbly carbonation and is very refreshing.

Lambic Style - Gueuze

Gueuze is a blend of young and old lambic. The yeasts are rejuvenated and carbonation ensues. The old lambic is more refined in character and helps take some of the edge off of the young lambic. The hops used are old, and act only as a preservative, so hop character is not a part of the style. The wild yeasts not only ferment and sour the beer, but they bring the funky, unpredictable flavours that characterize all lambic beers. A quality gueuze will be blended to eliminate some of the less desirable flavours. Above all else, a gueuze should be sour and very complex. The best examples are the most complex beers in the world, and put most champagnes to shame as well. The finish should be bone dry.