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Oude Gueuze Tilquin í  L'Ancienne - Gueuzerie Tilquin, Bierghes, Belgium


PappyVanWise

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I sent out the bat signal for some sour recs, and I figured why not start towards the top of the mountain?  Here if we have my first international beer for the VBT, the

Oude Gueuze Tilquin í  L'Ancienne.  Admittedly I don't know much about he history of gueuze and the grand Belgian traditions, so this posting will be a lot of copy and pasting.

From the Tilquin website:

"Installed in Bierghes in the Senne valley, the Gueuzerie Tilquin is the only gueuze blendery in Wallonia. A gueuzerie, or Geuzestekerij in Dutch, is an enterprise where Gueuze í  l'ancienne (or Oude Geuze) is blended.  Freshly brewed worts  are purchased from different producers in the region (Payottenland and Brussels), and pumped in oak barrels  for fermentation and ripening, during 1, 2 or 3 years. The lambics obtained are blended and bottled to give, after 6 months of refermentation, the Gueuze Tilquin í  l'ancienne, which has 6.4% alc / vol and is available in 37,5cl and 75cl bottles."

From The Beer Advocate entry

"Oude Gueuze Tilquin í  l'Ancienne (6.0% alc/vol) is a spontaneous fermentation beer, produced from the blending of 1, 2 and 3 years old lambics. It is unfiltered and unpasteurized, and refermented in the bottle for at least 6 months. The lambics used were fermented and oak aged in our installations. These lambics are coming from worts brewed by Boon, Lindemans, Girardin and Cantillon breweries."

I found it pretty easily here, but the Total Wine in McLean has it as coming in Sept 2013, so keep any eye out.  My bottles are dates 2012, so perhaps the 2013s are on their way.  Obviously these are aged, but I'm not clear if the bottling dates and vintage dates being like wine.  Looks it it's priced around $10 for the small bottle and $20 for the big one.  If anyone has some they've been aging, feel free to crack them open as well.  I'm pretty sure I might head back to my local store and pick up a few more for the cellar.

op uw gezondheid,

Eric

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It's a shame that this only sells in single bottles, because it really is a delicious beer.  The American beers we've tasted here have all been very good examples of a type of beer, either examples of a new recipe that a brewery was trying or something that acknowledge someone else's original recipe and honored or attempted to improve on.  This beer really stands out as something unique and definitely worth seeking out.

It poured well into a tulip glass with about an inch of foam at the top.  The aroma was instantly crisp, but not in a fruity way. I let it sit for a minute, which was a good idea since I could hardly put the glass down after my first sip.  Each taste was both complex and refreshing.  The fruitiness that was missing from the aroma does come forward in the taste.  It's mostly the sour flavors from fruits like apples and grapes.  Other reviews have a sweet and sour vibe, but the sweetness was very subdued for me.  I'm guessing a bottle with a bit of age on it will lose even more sweetness and gain on the funk, so I'm looking forward to laying a couple in the cellar.

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