Tonight I will be reviewing a beer for you. Something I intend to be doing on a weekly basis from now on.
The first beer which I will be taking was inspired by the current weather. It has finally become warm in these parts, and instead of agreeably warm, we've gone to sweltering and sweaty.
SO what could be better to cool off than a nice authentic acidic beer.
The beer I will be reviewing tonight is a Oude Geuze Boon
Review of the beer
It's not just any Oude Geuze Boon, it is a 7 year old bottle.
This beer was a 37;5cl bottle. It is also available in 75cl, and might be available in multiples of this size as well. It comes in at 6 ABV.
The beer looks as it should, a nice golden colour, with a nice head of foam. Despite it's age, there are no flakes drifting in it.
The taste of this beer is as I would expect. It is fresh and acidic, but due to it's age it does no longer set your teeth on edge as a freshly bought bottle would do. THe finish is nice and long, grainy. An altogether refreshing, thirst quenching experience.
Explanation of the style
Oude Geuze, is a protected name. ANy products willing to use this name have to adhere to a clear set of rules:
1 it must be brewed in a certain area around the Belgian capital of Brussels.
2 It must be fermented using the technique of spontaneous fermentation
3 It must ferment in oak or chestnut wooden barrels
4 The final beer must be composed from 1yr old, 2 yr old, and 3 yr old beer.
Spontaneous fermentation is the old traditional style, but hasn't been the standard way of brewing a beer for a long time. These days, after the brewing proces, you take the unfermented beer (known as wort) and you add a yeast culture. One which is either store bought, ot which is tended and prepared by the brewery. No matter what happens, great care is taken to make sure that no other micro-organisms come into contact with this wort.
For an Oude Geuze, it is this contact with other micro-organisms is essential. Rather than storing the wort in a sterile environment, it is poured in a large low basin, and is left there too cool overnight. During this time, it will become infected with natural yeast which are found in the area around Brussels (most notably the Brettanomyces Bruxcellensis)
After it has become innoculated with these yeasts fermentation will start, without any human addition (hence spontaneous).
When the beer has fermented in the barrels, it is known as lambic. It contains no CO2, but can be drank like that. However, it is very difficult to taste, since it spoils almost as fast as it comes out of the barrels in the breweries. One of the only ways to taste it, is to go and visit the breweries.
Therefore, most of the lambic is not consumed as such, but it gets mixed. 1yr old, 2yr old and 3 yr old lambic is mixed in certain quantities, and this mixture is than bottled. These bottles are stored for a further 6 months before they are sold. Once they are bottled, they remain drinkable practically forever. Most breweries put "use by" dates of 20 years on them, and I've had the pleasure of tasting a bottle of at least 25 years old, which tasted as fresh as if is had been bottled yesterday.
Note: it is the denominacion "Oude Geuze" which is protected. "Geuze" can be put on any beer, and does not guarantee that you have a beer which was produced according to this system.
Cheers.