Cantillon 50ºN-4ºE

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours with a yellowish gold body topped by a thin head with no lacing. It’s sour, lemony and tart with a little funk and a slight woody note. Light bodied, crisp, smooth and a touch dry.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pours a cloudy yellow, light headring . . aroma of light twisted honey, wood, smack, malt vinegar, lemon skin .. . looks skanky, i love them dem skanks! .. . quite a bitter backbone, yet so drinkable, evil crime fighter!! .. . no smoke without fire .. . apple, aspirin, honey, wood, and other shady ball licking activity (kinky sidelines) .. . very easy drinking for such a fantastic nutter sourness packed brew, one of the finer lambics i have ingested.. . i want to give it love squeezings!!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Bottle from State Line, purchased in May, and then brought back for sharing after the shelves went dry in days, me a lucky passerby who happened to grabbed on in a short window. The pour yielded a nice hazy golden straw color, decent initial head, thinned to a ring, spotty if any lacing. The aroma was funky tart apples, grapes, and lemons, light leathery elements. The flavor was so excellent, this thing just melded together nicely, remained pleasantly drinkable (I even said it came across as a gueuze, so smooth, no idea that was the classification here). Wonderful notes of leather and the tartness worked for me, and this finished with a very mildly sweet touch in the finish. No, the sweetness wouldn't be perceivable to the novice, but for a Cantillon brew, this had a very nice mild-balanced (for a lambic) finish, that was very pleasant. A solid and stellar brew, glad I was able to share with those that didn't get the bottle. If only I had some more? Mouthfeel was spritzy, slightly less carbonated than other gueze brews, but moreso than a standard flat/still type lambic. Is this my favorite Cantillon? I think perhaps so.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

2007 cork Date; Sampled May 2008
Only lightly carbonated as a partially vigorous pour only produces a finger-thick, pale, barely off-white colored head. The beer is a light honey color that shows a lightly hazed, golden-copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells sour of course, but has surprising backdrop of fruitiness to it; it smells of lightly, but distinctly of currants and berry-like notes in addition to more typical notes of tart apple, perhaps light pear and sour grapefruit. Quite mellow barnyard aromatics, with some light mustiness and a touch of horse blanket.

Nicely sour tasting, but with more oak influence than one typically finds in Lambic. The oak contributes more towards the end and finish of each sip with a spicy-oak component, a tannic woodiness and something a bit like warming alcohol (is that the cognac influence). Tart fruit notes of sour grapefruit, green apple and not quite ripe, tart pears and not quite ripe chardonnay grapes. This is exceedingly quaffable, my 750ml bottle of this is just easily disappearing down my throat; while light, the oak definitely gives this a structure and tannic texture. The light, yet soft prickle of carbonation keeps this from being airy (like many a highly carbonated Gueuze). Not as funky as many, still has a lasting, deep sourness, but also has an interesting, damp mustiness a slightly phenolic-cotton ball notes.

As the beer warms up and loses its carbonation a bit the unripe, green fruitiness becomes a bit more noticeable. Interestingly, besides a little warmth and the more noticeable oak notes, the Cognac seems to produce a chardonnay wine like flavor that is more fruity than anything, but has touches of flint to it. The warming alcohol, Cognac influence becomes more noticeable too, with the vapors influencing the nasal passages during each sip. Some tropical fruit influences even seem to take hold towards the end of this 750ml bottle; star fruit, and something vaguely like guava / papaya. The nose has definitely picked up some warming alcohol notes as well as a touch of buttery oak and even a funky, sort of cheesy fruitiness. The fruitiness even seems to accentuate a perception of sweetness, that just kisses the palate.

I am really surprised how mellow the barrel character is here, the cognac must have stripped out a lot of those oak flavors. This is a very well balanced beer; the barrel plays a significant supporting role here, sourness of course takes the lead, but not excessively so (this is not as hard as some Cantillon's) and the funk is definitely a supporting character. I like that this was lightly carbonated, given that this is not a blended beer I was expecting a much flatter experience, but the soft carbonation definitely adds a nice touch to the texture. Quite the tasty beer, I certainly wouldn't mind having a lot more of this in my cellar.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Pours out in a hazy pale orange colour with a small white creamy foam. Fresh acidic of lemon-peels, grapefruit, wet wood, tar yellow fruit and green grapes. Medium-bodied with fresh acidic and slightly woody notes of grapefruit, white grapes, lemon and old hay. Long sour finish of of grapefruit, lemon-peels and wood. Fantastic.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Bottled. Hazy nut brown/amber colour with not much head at all. Aroma is sour wood, with very sour fruits as well as some slight barrel notes. Also quite barnwardish and earthy notes in the nose. Flavour is sourness from fruits and wood along with some notes od oak barrells. A really pleasant brew.