Apr

04

Girardin Gueuze Black Label 1882 Lambic

By Andy Murphy

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Belgium is a beer-lover’s mecca, and I could spend the next few months drinking nothing but Belgian beer. But I’m beginning to long for some American craft ales — so after a few more Belgian beers I will be going back to my usual routine.

That’s not to say I’m finished with Belgian beer for the year — quite the contrary, I have plenty in my cellar and will be peppering them into the lineup throughout the rest of the year.

For Saturday, I’ve jumped into the world of lambic beer.

Lambics are “spontaneously fermented” in open-air vats, relying on the natural yeasts and organisms that appear in the air only in the region of Belgium southwest of Brussels. I can’t imagine a more capricious brewing style than “open the windows and let nature take its course”, but it produces quite a unique beer! Because lambic is usually aged for several years, lots of hops are used as a preservative — but older, drier hops are used to avoid adding bitterness.

Most lambics are blends — Gueuze (pronounced GURZ-uh) is a blend of both young and old lambics. Because the young lambic still has fermentable sugars, the beer undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle — producing a champagne-like carbonation that requires thick glass and a caged cork.

Adding fruit — or more controversially fruit juice — can also create a second fermentation, resulting in a sweet beer such as a Framboise (raspberry) or Kriek (cherry) lambic.

My first lambic was a sweet Framboise from Lindeman’s. Though tasty, it hardly tasted like beer. In fact, it remains the only beer my wife will drink — I introduced it to her while we were dating several years ago, and now we almost always have a bottle of Framboise or Kriek in the house.

But I’ve never had a dry lambic before, so the Girardin Gueuze 1882 completely changed everything I thought I knew about lambics.

The bottle would not look out of place alongside Champagne or sparkling wines. There was even a deep indentation at the bottom of the thick glass. When I removed the cage and wiggled free the cork, the 1882 popped exactly like a demi-bottle of Brut.

I poured the lambic into a champagne flute. It was golden and extremely carbonated — the only giveaway that this wasn’t sparkling wine was the aroma and the full, leisurely head.

Now — about that aroma. There’s a tangy, apple cider vinegar smell. But there’s quite a lot of funk, too. In high school I dated a girl who lived on a farm, and I found myself in the barn a few times — mostly, helping her muck out horse stalls. Girardin Gueuze 1882 carries a similar aroma, musty and earthy, with that funky-sweet smell of hay mixed with day-old horse manure.

I know that very little of the description above sounds appealing. But if you’ve spent much time around a horse barn, you’ll know it’s a sweet, natural smell that is actually quite nice once you get used to it. So if you can set your prejudices aside, you’ll be rewarded.

The taste is sweet and sour and fairly dry. The “horse stall” quality of the aroma is subdued once the beer is in your mouth. You’ll find lemons, apricots, even some pear in here. The sweet and sour qualities create a refreshing beer, and the carbonation makes for a mouthfeel that is quite like a sparkling wine. In fact, the complexity and mouthfeel should appeal to wine snobs and beer snobs alike.

So move over High Life — I think I’ve found the REAL “Champagne of Beers”.

For those of you keeping score at home:  Girardin 1882 is about 5% ABV and it was imported by D & V International of Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Recommended reviews of Girardin Gueuze 1882

• A Good Beer Blog
• Christina Perozzi’s “Beer for Chicks”

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Categories : Beer a Day