3 Fonteinen – Oude Kriek Lambic (750ml)
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Beer Type
Spontaneous Fermentation
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Beer Category
Lambic
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Beer Style
Oude Kriek
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Country
Belgium
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Region
Flemish Brabant
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Sub-Region
Beersel
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Size
750ml
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ABV
6.5%
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Tasting Notes
ComplexFruityFunky
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen is one of the last traditional lambic breweries and geuze blenders in Belgium. Rooted in the village of Beersel in the Zenne Valley between Brussels and the Pajottenland, 3 Fonteinen has a firm belief of what lambic tradition looks like. That is why they steadfastly continue to create the finest authentic lambic beers – 100% spontaneous from brew to bottle – continuing with the same strict process and craftsmanship used by Gaston and Armand Debelder. Family-owned with a team of 15 enthusiasts, they still brew in the village center of Beersel while giving our barrels and bottles of geuze and fruit lambic time to develop in a special warm room in Lot, a few kilometers away from the brewery.
Tasting Notes
Concentrated aromas of ripe whole cherry fruit bursts from the glass as it mingles with funky earthy notes derived from the natural Brettanomyces yeasts. This Kriek is perfectly balanced between fruit, acidity, and funk – and it will age gracefully in the cellar over the next several years, or decades if done properly.
Method
Lambics are the beers of this region in Belgium, and are among the world’s rarest: they are beers fermented with wild, airborne yeast – no yeast is added by the brewers. Lambics come only from the Senne River valley, near Brussels – a region about 15 by 75 miles in size. The unusual, demanding, and unique flavors that come from multiple yeast strains are unmatched in the world of beer.
The 46th blend of the 2019-2020 season. This Oude Kriek is typified by a long maceration of six and a half months on oak barrels. While most of the sour cherries were macerated on toasted oak, the blenders decided to blend these to an Oude Kriek rather than a Robijn (a more robustly toasted barrel version) as the toast characteristics were deemed more subtle. Five different barrels of lambic from seven different brews. 3 Fonteinen blenders let this Oude Kriek, which has 32% fruit intensity, settle for well over a year before releasing it. This way, the weighted average of this bottle is well over 30 months when released.
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