Beer 67: Lindeman's Gueuze Cuvee Rene

We ended up at our favorite Italian BYOB (Fellini's of Berwyn) for dinner last night.  It's a family run operation and every time we walk in, I feel like we just got home to see family.  It's a nice feeling.  And instead of celebrating Valentine's Day dinner with champagne, I made a game time decision to go with Lindeman's Gueuze CuveeRene. 

From beeradvocate.com:

Description: A traditional Belgian blend of young and old Lambics, which are then bottle after blending, then aged for 2-3 years to produce a dryer, fruitier and more intense style of Lambic. There is no hop character, some are filtered and force carbonated if not pasteurized as well. Some say that this is the more harsh lambic as the sourness is pretty intense.

I would agree with the assessment that they can be harsh if you don’t like the intense sour flavor.  But as I’ve said time and time again, I am way into gueuze, sour ale, wild ale and Flanders ale.  The more sour, the better!  The Cuvee Rene poured a golden and hazy copper color.  It smelled of funk, mild fruit and wet oak.  A drink kicked the tastebuds on the sides of my tongue into high gear.  Lots of tartness, a bit musty (in the best way possible) and some citrus.  It had a great astringency and finished dry.  It drank with a nice roundness and lots of bubbly carbonation.  This is one of my favorite examples of a gueuze. 

Lindeman’s also does some nice lambics – I’m particularly fond of the pomme. Cheers!