Gueuze: Venturing beyond my "comfort zone"

Well, after doing a lot of reading on spontaneous fermented beer, and a post of two here on HBT, I made the sour beer leap of faith! I consider it venturing outside my comfort zone because I ususally buy APA's, IPA's, wheat beers and belgian strong ales.

I'll begin by saying that the idea of spontaneous fermentation in beer was sparked by the fact that I have 3 gallons of local-grown concord grape wine that was made by spontaneous fermentation. So far so good on the wine, but it got me thinking on how it would turn out in a beer.

After reading some reviews of different beer that were suggested to me by HBT members on ratebeer.com, I was a little bit concerned. Quite a few people on the ratebeer site described an acetic or vinegar taste in a few of the sour beers. I cant stand the smell of vinegar and dont much care for the taste either. Anyway, I decided to try it and here I am!

The beer: Lindemans Gueuze Cuvee Renee. Label says it was bottled in '05. Kinda pricey at $9.99 for a 750mL bottle but about as cheap as a bottle of cheap wine. My first impressions upon opening the bottle were that it smells a little skunky, but not bad. What may be bad is that it reminds me of every Heineken beer I've ever drank(ducks and covers now!)

As much as I was fearing it, it did NOT taste like vinegar at all to me, what a relief!!!! Kind of a champagne like taste, but not bad. Very tart and sour, but not enough to make me pucker. Seems like it would be a good thirst quencher on a hot summer day. I drank the whole 750ml and went to bed shortly thereafter. Crazy dreams man but that may just be me!

So there it is, I've ventured into the dark side or beer and survived! Now I need to go back to the local beer store, and check out Ommegangs Ommegeddon, Rodenbach and Allagash. I dont think I will buy them very often due to cost, but maybe some special occasions will merit spending a bit more money. A big thanks to the folks here who gave me confidence and urged me to go forward!

Eric

After you try the store versions try brewing some. I have never had any but you make it sound good and I'll have to try some open fermented stuff.

At the AHA convention, our brew club's booth had a Gueuze.
It was our most popular non-competition brew, next to my Hefeweizen.

Venture beyond and go for it.

I had a similar experience. I did lots of research & got really interested in trying some spontaneously fermented beers. I prepared myself for venturing over to the sour side. I thought my taste buds were ready for something radically different. My 1st sour beer was Hanssens Artisanaal Oude Gueuze. Wow, it was intense! I sat down and really tasted it, wrote down what I was experienced and gave it a fair review. It was waay to much for me to handle, but I was able to pick out certain nuances that I enjoyed about it.

Unfortunately, that experience turned me off to all sour beers until just recently. I started trying some stuff fermented with Brett & working my way up to some of the more funky stuff, and I'm really enjoying them!

Im thinking about trying Ommegeddon next, I was told it would be tart and not a true sour beer because its fermented with brett and not spontaneously fermented.

Anyone have any recipes suggestions that would use brett?

Eric

Forget those and pick up a Cantillion Gueze. If you can not get that find a Hannsens Oude Gueze. Freaking fab. Here is a line up of beer we drank as we filled out barrel full of what will soon be a Rodenbach Grand Cru a year from now.

Have you ever tried Victory's Wild Devil? They take their Hop Devil IPA & ferment it with brett. I think it's an awesome and interesting brew. I'd like to harvest the brett from a commercial brew and ferment my own IPA with it. Should have interesting results. I would add the brett in secondary. You have to be VERY careful because brett can easily contaminate your equipment, even after you think it's clean & sanitized. I've read you should only ferment brett in glass, and a lot of people use separate siphoning hoses, etc. to keep things separate & lower the risk of contamination.

If you end up liking Rodenbach (and it is awesome, IMHO), you should try and find some Liefman's Goudenband. Currently difficult to find - in New England at least - due to distributor shortages, but it's an amazing semi-sour brown. If I had to call one commercial beer my "favorite," that would very possibly be it.

Congrats! Its all down hill from here.

There aren't many things like a well made gueuze.

ohiobrewtus said:

There aren't many things like a well made gueuze.

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I can still go back to the first time I tasted Boon's Geuze. It was a religious experience!

Reverend JC said:

Forget those and pick up a Cantillion Gueze. If you can not get that find a Hannsens Oude Gueze. Freaking fab. Here is a line up of beer we drank as we filled out barrel full of what will soon be a Rodenbach Grand Cru a year from now.

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I think the best in that lineup was probably the La Folie. I can drink Cuvee Renee when I don't want to spend a lot and I want something sour. My go to beer at my local bar is the Petrus Aged Pale. If I've had like 4 Plinys in a row and I want something sour to cut through the hops, I will order one of those. It has an excellent balance.

I agree with the Cantillon statement. Cuvee Renee is a very basic gueuze and it very approchable. Cantillon is pretty much the gold medal standard. If you want something fruity, the Lou Pepe is good. I would suggest the Fou Foune, but that's getting up there in price. Amazing apricot flavor, though.

I am straying from the gueuze conversation, though. They're not like other sours, really. If you want to talk more about wild beers, though, I could talk for hours.

man, I just recently got bit by the sour bug. there is no going back!!! I found a place down town that that has a really good selection and spent a pretty penny on a few bottles. two I drank last night (can't remember the names) but I'm enjoying an Oude Gueuze from Hanssens right now. fricken awesome! (you knew it was gonna be!)

nothing like a nice sour on a hot day.

I have to start brewing this.

I am going to say a big +1 on the Fou Foune. That beer is pretty much the best thing ever. Bottles are over 25 each, but so worth it.

Acetic is definitely an issue with a lot more sour reds than with a lot of the gueuzes I've had. Sure, it can creep in too, but it seems that they miss that most of the time. the Rodenbach GC this year seems too acetic to me. Last year it was nice, so I think something happened in their brewery. Keep drinking though. You're at the very top surface of what there is out there, and once you get through a lot of the easier to drink ones, you might find that a little vinegar isn't a bad thing. A lot is always overwhelming and yuck, but sometimes it can be subtle and appreciated.

emr454 said:

The beer: Lindemans Gueuze Cuvee Renee.

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I just got this to try, and Holy Sour-Beer, Batman! Whoever mentioned it was a religious experience was really close to the truth. I tried it when it was still kind of warm, though. Waiting for it to cool at the moment.

Gueuze is actually a blend of different lambic style aged different amounts of time (1,2,3 years). I have been wanting to learn how to do lambics and sours. I think its another level of power over the smallest things on the planet to make tasty drinks.

Try it! Make sure to take pictures of the pellicle and all the crazy leathery looking stuff on top.