I threw away the worthless map I had and decided to follow my beer nose. I turn up a hill, a sight at a plaza by a church and bam! I was at De Drie Fonteinen! It felt good after a day of travel to sit down to a beer and a meal. The first beer I had was the kriek from tap.
Kriek from tap (a blend of Girardin and Lindeman's Lambic -- D'Arcy)
Still. No carbonation at all. Very good strong cherry fruit flavor. A little
horse and acid in the nose. The flavor was sour -- too sour for my traveling
companion. The finish was dry and clean with just a hint of the fruit lingering
- -- went very well with the food I had. 100BF (~US$3.50)
Kriek from the bottle
Very spritzy. Served with sugar and a crusher (the only time I was in Belgium!)
Even after two sugar cubes this was still *very* sour. The cherry flavor in this
was more intense than in the tap version. Big pink head! 100BF (US$3.50)
Gueuze from bottle
Very carbonated. Intensely sour, but no sugar served wtih this one. Big Brett
nose and flavor. Nice straw color and very dry finish. 100BF
I stayed at the little hotel nearby. This one had the bathtub and sink in the room, and the WC was down the hall (~1800BF =~US$63 -- including breakfast). It was a quaint, but not really very nice. The old lady running the place I a fit when I leaned next to her to see where we were suppose to park. It seems she felt I was trying to throw her down the stairs! When we went down to order a Boon Kriek, she had told her husband what I had done and he replied that it would have been a *very* expensive night for us.
I don't have any notes on the Boon Kriek, but I remember it being more sour than a bottled version I recently had in the States. I believe it was on tap there. We headed out to find the 3 Springs, but went to a smaller place a block away.
Kriek from tap
I don't know what "brand" this was or if it was a blend (Hell, I don't even
remember the name of the cafe!) It was fruity and well balanced. Not too sour
and not too sweet. Small head faded quickly. Very nice and smooth -- sort of the
dessert version of Kriek without all the sugar. 33cl 36BF (~US$1.26) -- There
are some bars in rural Wisconsin where you can't even get an Old Style (in a
can) for that cheap.
The next day we went to the Oud Beersel Brewery Museum (which is really outside of Beersel from what I could tell) The museum was closed, but the bar was open.
Geuze
Spritzy and *very* sour -- lactic. It reminded me a lot of my own pLambic which
weighed in heavy on the lactic acid side especially compared to Cantillon's
acetic acid side. The soft Brett character was overpowered by the lactic
quality. A small pelicle was floating and gathering at the bottom of the glass.
Dry finish with a slightly sweet aftertaste. It doesn't taste very well with
toothpaste. 65BF (~US$2.30)
Lambik
Still. Not nearly as sour as the Geuze. Very well balanced. Soft. Smells like a
soft cheese. Good body and a clean finish. Straw color. A few locals were
drinking this, the rest were drinking Palm Ale. 35BF (~US$1.23)
Cheers,
Andrew
Last Updated: 10 October, 1995
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