Gueuze
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:58 am
Gueuze
A mixture of young (one-year) and old (two and three-year) lambics which has been bottled. It undergoes secondary fermentation (the so-called méthode champenoise), producing carbon dioxide, because the young lambics are not yet fully fermented. It keeps in the bottle; a good gueuze will be given a year to referment in the bottle, but can be kept for 10-20 years. An obscure German ale style, Gose, is not to be confused with gueuze.
A theory regarding the origins of the names geuze and lambic as put forth by Hubert van Herreweghen (Flemish-Belgian author and gueuze connoisseur) translated by Horst Dornbusch:
"It was also during the Spanish occupation of Brabant that - at least according to one rather fanciful theory - the two Belgian signature brews of gueuze and lambic got their names. According to this tale, the well-provisioned Spanish soldiers used to march into battle with partitioned leather flask dangling from their belts. One half of such a flask was filled with water, the other, with wine. Because of its dual function, the flask was called el ambiguo (Spanish for "double meaning"). The poor local gueux, on the other hand, (gueux is French for "beggars" or "good-for-nothings"), who opposed the worldly Spaniards, merely carried a flask of indigenous sour beer on their marches. The Spanish apparently derided the unpartitioned and thus obviously inferior drinking vessel of the bedraggled locals as a ... gueuze el ambiguo or a gueuze-lambic."
A mixture of young (one-year) and old (two and three-year) lambics which has been bottled. It undergoes secondary fermentation (the so-called méthode champenoise), producing carbon dioxide, because the young lambics are not yet fully fermented. It keeps in the bottle; a good gueuze will be given a year to referment in the bottle, but can be kept for 10-20 years. An obscure German ale style, Gose, is not to be confused with gueuze.
A theory regarding the origins of the names geuze and lambic as put forth by Hubert van Herreweghen (Flemish-Belgian author and gueuze connoisseur) translated by Horst Dornbusch:
"It was also during the Spanish occupation of Brabant that - at least according to one rather fanciful theory - the two Belgian signature brews of gueuze and lambic got their names. According to this tale, the well-provisioned Spanish soldiers used to march into battle with partitioned leather flask dangling from their belts. One half of such a flask was filled with water, the other, with wine. Because of its dual function, the flask was called el ambiguo (Spanish for "double meaning"). The poor local gueux, on the other hand, (gueux is French for "beggars" or "good-for-nothings"), who opposed the worldly Spaniards, merely carried a flask of indigenous sour beer on their marches. The Spanish apparently derided the unpartitioned and thus obviously inferior drinking vessel of the bedraggled locals as a ... gueuze el ambiguo or a gueuze-lambic."