I’ll be hosting a geuze vertical tasting this weekend (Mega Blend 2009-2015) and I wanted to offer some tasting descriptor suggestions. What would you recommend for aroma, flavor and finish? I’m hoping for more than the usual “acidic, horse blanket, hay,” etc. Whatcha got?
Not a style I’m super familiar with, but acidic you could break down to Lactic and Acetic. Lactic should be like sour cream or yogurt while acetic is vinegar. Not sure acetic is common in geuze or not. I’ve tasted it in flanders style beers like Duchess de Bourgonge.
Gueuze can include a wide range of flavors. It might be more fun to give no descriptors and see what people come up with.
Flavors you could see can include honey, lemon, orange, cherry pie, mushroom, honeydew, minerality, earthiness, herbal, barnyard, horse blanket, wet dog, leather, almond, sherry, hay and a lot more. The acidity can be fairly low to fairly high–especially for some producers.
Thanks! That’s exactly what I was thinking. I’ll give people a list of descriptors just to help get them going. I suspect we’ll be coming up with our own as get into the groove.
Are you familiar with the Meilgaard Beer Flavor Wheel?
http://www.beerflavorwheel.com
Gueze is certainly one of the more complex styles, and the flavor wheel can help you dig in to what you’re tasting.
Thanks! I forgot about the flavor wheel.