August's very unusual TOTM is a beer I can tell you about, but cannot identify. The reason for this is that it's illegal, since it is not a single beer crafted at a brewery but a blended and aged beer bottled in the basement of a reputable beer bar. As you may have already surmised, its component parts are lambics.
(Truth to tell, I'm not entirely convinced of its illegality, since it has never been for sale at the bar in question. But, just in case, I'm going to err on the side of caution and not mention who gave it to me.)
This bar is a relatively regular purveyor of Cantillon draught lambics, everything from the occasional straight aged lambic to kegged gueuze and fruited lambics, all packaged specifically for the States and served at most establishments through a British hand pump. In a moment of inspired genius, the proprietor decided to keep the ends of some of these barrels and blend and age them himself, eventually bottling them with a little fresh lambic to create a U.S.-blended, Belgium-brewed gueuze. On my last visit, I was presented with a bottle of this cross-national brew.
After hanging onto it for a few months, I finally popped the cork with a few of the team at beerbistro and poured wine glasses all around. Compared to the gueuze from Cantillon which I count as the industry standard, this was significantly more rounded in body and certainly a lot fruitier; so much so, in fact, that I have to wonder if the mix included some kegged Fou'foune, Cantillon's excellent apricot lambic. The finish struck me as less dry than a typical Cantillon gueuze, which I theorized might be attributable to the relative youth of the bottle.
All in all, it was a most satisfying beer and an excellent experiment, one which is definitely worthy of further exploration, legality be damned.
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