So I went to Quintessence yesterday at Cantillon in Brussels - their once every two year tasting day. It's a fantastic place making lambic and gueze, now run by Jean van Roy, the fourth generation of Cantillon/van Roy owners. In the 1970s they nearly went out of business as there was little interest in sour beer and the big brewers started pushing sweetened versions. They are truly on the up now though - huge demand from the US - and have just expanded their brewing capacity.
There were 17 beers to try - each with its own horses doofer type thing. The beers ranged from extremely tasty to the best thing I've ever tasted - and quite a few are more or less impossible to try outside of the brewery itself.
Grand Cru Bruocsella - blended 3 year old lambic, bottled this year, so super fresh. Because they only use old lambic, this will never carbonate.
Aunis - lambic with Pinot d'Aunis grapes. Very fresh - light red wine colour.
Zelige - lambic with grapes from Domaine Zelige Caravent. When used in winemaking, apparently these grapes are only used in 2ndary fermentation as they are too powerful otherwise. Darker than the aunis and more pungent.
Rosé de Gambrinus - raspberry lambic, really fresh and fruity
Lou Pépé Kriek - cherry lambic
Vigneronne - lambic with Italian muscat grapes
Lambic Riesling Zusslin - lambic fermented with Riesling must - the only one I didn't really take to.
Foufoune 2015 - not as good as the 2014 I tried recently, but still pretty tart.
Zwanze 2012 - rhubarb lambic - wow, such a long rhubarb finish.
Cuvée St-Gilloise - gueze made for the local footy team
Iris - only just bottled so fresh, this one is dry hopped so a bit more bitter than most geuze
Iris Grand Cru - no dry hopping, so lacks the bitterness of the regular version. Not primed so v low in carbonation.
Aspérule - Lambic with woodruff flowers. Kind of minty.
Gueuze 1996 - wowzers - 20 year old lambic - served by the owners son, Florian, who is 20.
Geuze from the magnum - they use 2, 3 and 4 year old lambic in this, so older than the regular sized bottles. lOvely.
50°N-4°E - lambic aged on cognac barrels - not so much cognac coming through, but a bit woody.
La Vie est Belge - fanflippintastic. Simply the best beer I've ever tasted. Lambic aged in Vin Jaune barrels - super strong taste of the vin jaune. Tasted together with Comte cheese for extra yumtus. They only made 400 bottles, so sadly I suspect I'll never get to try this again.
There were six beers from a Spanish brewery - clearly inspired by Cantillon, but not as good. There was one thing blended with kumquats which was OK.
Into the bar and:
Carignan - lambic with carignan grapes. Oh yes!
Lou Pepe Framboise - raspberry loveliness - I don't think they sell this outside the brewery, so good to have this one.
Onto Moeder Lambic
Fou Foune - on tap. Much less fruity, but smoother than the bottle version.
Lambic blend from Tilquin - I guess this is Tilquin's blend before he referments it. A very odd cheesy aroma. Not for me.
St Lamvinus - another grape lambic from Cantillon
225 saison - Brasserie des Franches Montagnes - decent saison from Switzerland
Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien - Brasserie des Franches Montagnes - rather good barley wine
Onto BrewDog bar
Elvis Juice - grapefruit IPA from BrewDog - needed a hop hit, but to be honest it seemed a bit lame after the fireworks at Cantillon
Black Eyed King Imp Vietnamese Coffee Edition - OK, so that's a very decent coffee stout, but at 18 EUR for a can it's a bit pricey given that we were drinking 75cl bottles at Cantillon for 15 EUR.
Onto the train
I have a feeling that we drank a Speedway Stout - Bourbon Barrel Aged: Kopi Luwak edition. This is extremely rare these days and I suspect we didn't really do it justice. The train trip was a bit marred when we realized my mate Flozza had left 6 bottles of Cantillon in BrewDog - having queued for an hour to buy them, he was a bit upset.