Oud Beersel Gueuze is a classic among Belgian beers. Following spontaneous fermentation in wooden barrels (no yeast or sugar added), young and old lambic are blended; which results in a dry, tart and fruity wine like taste. Oud Beersel Geuze is the white sparkling wine of the beer world.

Hanssens Gueuze is a blended lambic comes in a corked bottle, which gives a short, sharp hiss on opening. Pouring it produces a decent, bubbly head leaving a bit of lacework. It is fairly easy to pour clear at first, but we chose to add the yeast a little later. The aroma is typically dry, sour and barnyardy, with a heady mixture of subtle spices and stale socks. In the mouth it is very lemony and sherbety - like a lemon sherbet, in fact. Despite the sharp, sour lemon notes, this also has a little balancing touch of sweetness. Rubber inner-tube notes accompany the finish, leaving a clean, sharp, citrusy aftertaste with a lingering touch of cinnamon. Adding the yeast seems to result in a bitter bite in the mouth. A top-notch gueuze - perhaps a little more approachable than some of the more aggressively sour artisanal examples of the style.

This is definitely not a mass-produced lambic. Unlike some lambics which are barely aged at all, those from Hanssens are matured for three years before they leave the brewery. As with the traditional practice of producing lambic, each batch is placed in vats in a barn with an open roof right after boiling to allow it to be fermented by the wild yeasts in the Senne Valley for one night. After its night upstairs, the beer is placed in wooden barrels which contain their own unique micro flora to ferment the lamic for six months. The secondary fermentation occurs in the barrels when fresh cherries from the Senne Valley are placed in each barrel to provide additional sugar for the yeasts.