Brouwerij Lindemans is coming up from the cellar in April! I started with the Faro and now we tackle the Cuvee Renee. A refermented in the bottle Gueuze that the label declares “Improves in bottle with age”
I always dread corked bottles. You never know if the cork will behave or if there will be a geyser. But this cork came out easy and cleanly. No trouble at all. It pours a really clear orange with a bit of lacing around the edge of the glass after the initial pillow of foam recedes. The aroma is pure funk. I get grass, hay and barn wood. And this probably sounds strange but I also get that smell just before rain starts. Weird.
Boy, this a puckery inducing beer. My first thought was of sucking a lemon. It has that citrus note that is punctuated with tart. It is twisting my mouth into different shapes. It is really sharp at the front of the mouth which makes finding other notes a little harder. But I do get some oak wood notes. Very minor but there. A little bit of apple cider vinegar as well. I have had beers that are more sour but this is definitely at that end of the spectrum. Not an easy drinker and a sharp contrast to the sticky sweetness of the Faro from earlier this month.
Both were bought at the same time. So I will “assume” that they were close vintages. And yet they couldn’t be further apart to me. This is super tart and that doesn’t let up much as it warms either. In fact, I start to get more grapefruit pith notes now. My palate is in a state of sour shock.
The Verdict – Part of me thinks that this beer has turned a little too vinegary and that I may have held it a good half year too long. But the acid isn’t super high and I still do get some citrus notes and the barnyard funk is in full bloom. So, I am conflicted. Let’s split the difference and say that this would have been better back in January.
Sean,
I’ve been enjoying your reports on the wares of your beer cellar. Not sure how Lindemans date their lambics. Cantillon dates (on the cork, so you often have to open the beer before you can find the correct date) their beer the year they bottle and cork it, but it is released usually a couple years later, after some bottle conditioning.
Faros typically don’t age that well at 4.2% abv. The yeast eats that sugar in the bottle (and increases the CO2 and the tartness and dryness and decreases the sweetness the more it ages). The light body doesn’t support that all that well. So the fact that you got a lotta sweetness suggests it wasn’t aged all that much.
Cuvee Renee, on the other hand, is the crown jewel of Lindemans (along with hard-to-find-in-the-US Cuvee Renee Kriek) as it (and the kriek) are the only lambics they do NOT sweeten with sugar. Likewise (as stated in the “Vintage Beer” book you turned me onto), many unsweetened geuzes tend to get more funky and vinegary in the first few years, but then mellow out to more subtle funk and barnyard notes, plus an intense dryness, as the yeast consumes everything it can, over the next 5-10 years or longer.
Someone brought a Cuvee Renee to our bottle share on Sunday; did you get a chance to taste it? I didn’t catch the vintage, but it tasted pretty much like a recent version to me.
My guess is that you opened both Lindemans too early to achieve the benefits of the aging process (which is longer for this style). And yes, it woulda been preferable to drink them alongside the freshest versions of the same lambics you could find.
If you’re ever interested in doing a “guest” Up from the Cellar, or a vertical of several vintages, come on over sometime to the Trux Stop — with or without wares from yours — and we’ll check out some of my vintage bottles that are screaming to be opened and assessed.
In the meantime, keep up the great beer awareness/education articles and reports on Beer Search Party!
Cheers,
Tomm
Thanks Tomm! I did not see or taste the one you mentioned at the bottle share. Probably didn’t even try 10%! I have been learning many things with thus process. And I am sure, that I will learn more. When I rebuild my stock, I will be doing things differently. And I may have to do a special Tomm Carroll edition later this year.