After our Russian River heavy tasting last week I had a serious taste for the stink of an infected brew, and I started seeking them out more actively. Luckily for me, Jacob at 4th Ave Pub had just tapped the keg of Cantillon Gueze he had been stashing when I visited a few days later. I was psyched to get to try this quintessential Gueze on draft, and even more psyched that it was the relatively new all organic version (they started bottling in 2003).
My lambic experience is admittedly limited, but now I’m hooked. I think my hop addiction may even be put on hold while I seek out the stinkiest beers I can find in the city. And thats what hit’s you first when you get your glass of Cantillon, the stink. It smells like the 4H barn at the State Fair if someone tried to cover up the natural odor with Sweet Tart scented air freshener, and there’s some citrus and hay in there as well as a bit of stinky cheese… yeah it’s complex. There’s a pretty heavy pucker when you suck it down, but the flavor isn’t at all overwhelming. Its actually really refreshing and drinkable, and I was ordering doubles to get a full pint all week while it was on. I could definitely drink as many of these as I could afford this summer if it stayed available.
The Russian River Beatification was actually a lot weirder than this guy, though, and I’m really looking forward to finding out what other oddities are out there in the world of spontaneous/Brett/infected beers in the New Weird Craft Brewing tradition, in addition to sampling as many of the Belgian classics as I can get my hands on.
2 Comments
Oh no! Not the NWCB! Tho seriously, I’ve had this from the bottle and loved it. It also makes for a nice steamed mussel or thirty!
The one time I had this from the bottle I didn’t really enjoy it. It was pretty tame and didn’t pop in any way. It should be noted that this isn’t really a gueuze as it is unblended three year old lambic. Not that I’m going to tell Cantillon anything about anything.
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