Cantillon Classic Gueuze

I finally popped open my bottle of Cantillon Classic Gueuze the other night!

Again, lambic is a wild fermented ale made with about 70% barley and 30% wheat in the Senne Valley of Belgium. Rather than adding yeast to the wort, lambic makers use a more traditional approach to brewing by exposing the wort to the open night air of the Senne Valley, which has natural yeast spores and bacteria that ferment the wort. Then the beer is put into wooden barrels to condition for varying periods of time, often up to several years. Gueuze is a beer made by blending both young (about 1 year old) and old (about 2-3 years old) lambics. Gueuze is often called the "champagne of beer."

This was a 1 pt. 9.4 fl. oz. bottle with a cork and bottle cap. I need to work on my de-corking technique; I can pop off bottle caps on nearly anything with a flat edge but I nearly tore up the cork on this bottle while trying to open it. The beer was very light, almost a straw color, and the featured a moderate, bubbly head that quickly dissipated. This beer had the distinct aroma of Brettanomyces funkiness, which really smells like nothing else and gets you geared up for the experience of a good Belgian beer.

This is my first gueuze, and I now understand why it is called the champagne of beers. This is quite tart and sour with a bit of funkiness and very subtle bitterness. This beer has very little carbonation, no taste of malt, and absolutely no hop presence (they use aged or stale hops in lambic so that they don't overwhelm the other flavors). It is dominated by tartness, which is very unusual for beer. Lambics are always a unique experience, and without fail whoever I am drinking with expresses some disbelief that they are actually drinking beer. For myself, this was absolutely delicious and I can't wait to have more. I would be happy if I never had champagne again if it meant that I could have gueuze instead (and I happen to enjoy champagne).

I enjoyed a helping of strawberry shortcake with my bottle of Cantillon. The sweetness of the dessert contrasted with the lambic, bringing out and intensifying the sourness and funkiness in this wild ale. Also, any sourness in the strawberry acted to complement the beer. The combination of complementary and contrasting flavors in the dessert and beer made this a complex, intriguing, and natural pairing. This pairing isn't a 'stretch'- I think anyone who enjoys tartness would agree that this is a successful pairing between beer and dessert.