Lambic Discussion Thread

[stupac2]

I finally drank my 2005 750ml about 4 months ago.... A shell of its former self. I definitely think 1-4yrs is perfect for the Grand Reserva, but all their beers have a bit of variation, so YMMV.

Hmm, I recall the Grand Reservas all being great when I went through them at Kulminator. Pannepot itself was awesome with age, the 2004 I had was divine.

So a few weeks ago I mentioned here that I was drinking blauw. At the time I was pretty excited to try it but was unimpressed with it. That was also the general consensus of the group. Certain whales were worth it others were not and blauw was the biggest disappointment. I actually opened a 4 year old cuvée Rene with a brown bag over it and had people try it withou knowing what it was. People really liked it and 2 people guessed what it was one said cantillon, the other said Tilquin. Everyone really enjoyed it. I asked several people later and they said it was better than the blauw and I agreed. These beers were drank back to back. I know at 10+ years a lot of things can happen but everyone praises blauw so much and I was wondering if anyone else had this experience with blauw. We also had other beers that ate or older that were better

I've been lucky to have Blauw a number of times now, and I'm always impressed with it.

 

[Rowingbrewer1]

Hmm, I recall the Grand Reservas all being great when I went through them at Kulminator. Pannepot itself was awesome with age, the 2004 I had was divine.

I've been lucky to have Blauw a number of times now, and I'm always impressed with it.

Could have been storage, bottle variation, etc. but it just was not that good, I had a 3F OG recently that I liked more

 

[justforrazors]

In my experience that happens in like 80% of Cantillon bottles, no matter how they're stored*. I'm surprised you haven't noticed it before, actually. In some of the older bottles it can get pretty gross, sometimes even black like it's moldy. Even when it's not bad it does smell spoiled, or something. But I have never noticed it actually affecting the taste of the beer. Most of the time I don't bother doing anything with it, but if it smells/looks bad then I mop it up with a napkin or something before removing the cork.


*I don't think storage here matters at all because Cantillon boxes (for the 750's, at least) are the kind that pack horizontally. And they're all stored horizontally at the brewery. So no matter how you got your Cantillon bottles, they were horizontal for a significant amount of time. If you got them from a US shelf, they were horizontal during the shipping process, so they were horizontal AND being agitated fairly aggressively. I think that if that leakage hasn't occurred by the time a bottle gets into the US, it won't occur from tame horizontal storage in a cellar. But I could be wrong.

I've seen this in probably more like 50% that I have opened, but still a large amount. That being said, only one bottle didn't taste quite right.

 

[ExPimp]

I've been lucky to have Blauw a number of times now, and I'm always impressed with it.

I haven't had a massive amount of lambic/gueuze ghost whales, but this beer remains one of my favorite of all time.

 

[Rowingbrewer1]

It was also a bitch to get the cork out and not as crazy carbed as people have said

 

[stupac2]

It was also a bitch to get the cork out and not as crazy carbed as people have said

Hmm, it's always been pretty fizzy for me. So it seems like you may have just gotten a dud bottle, which is seriously unfortunate...

 

[regularjohn]

It was also a bitch to get the cork out and not as crazy carbed as people have said

funny you mentioned that, i don't know if this is normal but when i opened the regular gueze tonight a very tiny amount went through the cork. it broke apart very easily and was caked into the bottle and the smell was extremely off putting , but once i got that bitch out the bottle was fine...is it normal for a cork to just be bad? or is it related to how it was stored and maybe the cork got a little funky?

 

[HenrikO]

Where do people get all these bottles of Blauw that they're drinking like, once a week?
My whale game is weak. Lucky for me I live reasonably near Akkurat, otherwise I'd never drink any whales.
And we all know whales are way tastier than regular beer, right?

 

[Rowingbrewer1]

Where do people get all these bottles of Blauw that they're drinking like, once a week?
My whale game is weak. Lucky for me I live reasonably near Akkurat, otherwise I'd never drink any whales.
And we all know whales are way tastier than regular beer, right?

They are suppose to be better, wish that was the case for me

 

[Dpaquet]

Most of the whales I had we're not better than regular 3F OG. Some of them were even disappointing, but for blauw, it's still the best beer I have ever had.

 

[mrk_d]

X-post from DDT. Drinking my Lente right now. I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said already but this is a fantastic beer. Probably the best I've ever had.

 

[MordorMongo]

X-post from DDT. Drinking my Lente right now. I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said already but this is a fantastic beer. Probably the best I've ever had.

You should have had it a year ago


Still love Lente but it changed for the worse in my experience. Awesome still yes, but man it was near perfection at one point. Now I'm not certain it's even the second best of the set.

 

[mrk_d]

You should have had it a year ago


Still love Lente but it changed for the worse in my experience. Awesome still yes, but man it was near perfection at one point. Now I'm not certain it's even the second best of the set.

Don't tell me that. Now I'm gonna have to go buy the whole set to confirm for some terrible price.

 

[ASUBeer]

You should have had it a year ago


Still love Lente but it changed for the worse in my experience. Awesome still yes, but man it was near perfection at one point. Now I'm not certain it's even the second best of the set.

Zomer. Mmmmmmmm......

Need to open a Herfst soon too.

 

[cparles]

Zomer. Mmmmmmmm......

Need to open a Herfst soon too.

Open the Herfst - you will not regret it. I was on the fence about the one I had last year, but I opened one a couple nights ago and wow was it delicious. Definitely preferred it to the Zomer I had a few weeks ago.

 

[Lefty Hyzer]

There has been plenty of issues with flat herfst. Not same for me. I think I still prefer Zomer. I think we are gonna do the whole set again on DLD.

 

[mjohnson171]

There has been plenty of issues with flat herfst. Not same for me. I think I still prefer Zomer. I think we are gonna do the whole set again on DLD.

I'll come find you when that happens

 

[ASUBeer]

Open the Herfst - you will not regret it. I was on the fence about the one I had last year, but I opened one a couple nights ago and wow was it delicious. Definitely preferred it to the Zomer I had a few weeks ago.

Just opened a Herfst (thanks SeaWatchman ). You are right, it's pretty amazing right now. I had one a few years ago and it was good but it's unbelievable now. Zomer is my favorite but Herfst is right there with it.

 

[Pneill3161]

I've only had the herfst and lente back in December. I must say I preferred the herfst much more.

 

[eyesonsaison]

The Fou I opened the other night barely had any apricot flavor at all, anyone experience that with the '13 batch? Having it on tap last Zwanze was one of the best drinking experiences I've had, but I'm hesitant to trade for more after that last bottle.

Also, I recently tried the Yuzu lambic form Owa. Wasn't bad, but a bit disappointing after how good the Japanese Plum one was. 10/10 label, though.

 

[Michigan1]

The Fou I opened the other night barely had any apricot flavor at all, anyone experience that with the '13 batch?

Yup! Lots of people experienced this.

Also, I recently tried the Yuzu lambic form Owa. Wasn't bad, but a bit disappointing after how good the Japanese Plum one was. 10/10 label, though.

I really want to try one of those. They look so good

 

[montrealbcr89]

The Fou I opened the other night barely had any apricot flavor at all, anyone experience that with the '13 batch? Having it on tap last Zwanze was one of the best drinking experiences I've had, but I'm hesitant to trade for more after that last bottle.

Also, I recently tried the Yuzu lambic form Owa. Wasn't bad, but a bit disappointing after how good the Japanese Plum one was. 10/10 label, though.

I've had two bottles of '13 so far and thought they were both fantastic with plenty of apricot presence. I have heard of bottle variation, but I've found the new batch fantastic. Maybe oldp0rt can chime in.

 

[oldp0rt]

I've had two bottles of '13 so far and thought they were both fantastic with plenty of apricot presence. I have heard of bottle variation, but I've found the new batch fantastic. Maybe oldp0rt can chime in.

I was lucky enough to have had 5 of them so far and all have been amazing. My favorite batch so far.

2012 was good but a lot more apricot than sour though.

2013 is a nice mix of apricot and sour.


Damn, now I want some Fou'

 

[SeaWatchman]

I was lucky enough to have had 5 of them so far and all have been amazing. My favorite batch so far.

2012 was good but a lot more apricot than sour though.

2013 is a nice mix of apricot and sour.


Damn, now I want some Fou'

So do I. -_-

 

[GoozySosa]

So do I. -_-

that makes 3 of us.

 

[eyesonsaison]

I would love a bottle with some fruit character
It was still wonderful lambic, but the apricot was beyond subtle

 

[GetchaPull]

liquiddegenerate

We opened '12 and '13 FFs side-by-side the night of Hunapocalypse and had the same results ('12 being fruitier, '13 more tart). Wonder how an '11 would compare to those two. Here's to hoping for a better apricot crop in '14.

 

[LukeAleTime]

My 13 fou tasted like the apricot stone. That weird bitterness you get if you bite through one.

It was pretty average.

I tried it from the barrel at Cantillon and it was amazing. Like eating a sour apricot.

 

[grandmeaulnes]

that makes every person on tb

ftfy

 

[GoozySosa]