A few months ago, I started a Thursday night post work tradition: beer on Caltrain. You see, a few times a week I take the train from San Francisco into work in Redwood City, and towards the end of the week I do enjoy a beer on the train ride home. While I'm generally an equal opportunity imbiber, I occasionally prefer a sour, slightly funky geuze. For a while, I was getting my geuze fix courtesy of Hansen's Oude Geuze, a very tasty brew with good acidic bite and just enough of the characteristic, meaty brett savor you get from 1, 2 and 3 year old spontaneously fermented Belgian lambics blended together. While I'm sure I will come back to Hansen's sooner or later, I recently had a beer that superceded the quality of Hansen's, and in my mind, even Cantillon's geuze.
Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze is a blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old lambics aged in old oak. It is, without a doubt, the finest geuze I have yet to drink. Citric aromas, with a touch of noticeable old barrel spice (think white burgundy with several years of bottle age) lead to a bright, snappy palate of bitter, pithy citrus fruits. There is also a toasted bread and meaty savor from the barrels and use of brettanoymyces in the fermentation, which characterize the brew. The champagne of beers, I definitely recommend that you try a good geuze, especially if you enjoy all things funky and/or slightly tart when it comes to your food and wine/beer consumption. Imported by Shelton Brothers, the boutique beer importers located in the heart of Massachusett's Pioneer Valley, Belchertown. Belchertown, MA...it's more than just growlers of local porter.
