Wild Gueuze Chase

A reader and fellow beer aficionado emails me an image of a bottle of Lindemans Framboise, along with the question, "Had it before?" I replied:

Yes. That's good stuff. Peche as well.

In addition, I'm one of those weird people who likes the Gueuze. Wish I could find it up here.

I could usually get gueuze at my old H-Town watering hole, but, until I started composing this post, I had completely struck out in Boston. The above message, though, caused me to check the beer list at a new place, Lord Hobo, that an acquaintance recently told me about. As it turns out, they feature two, both of which are new to me.

Depending on who's talking, you will hear this style of beer described as anything from "wine-like" to ... um ... not:

Because aged hops are used to produce these lambics, the beer has little to none of the traditional hop flavor and aroma that can be found in most other styles of beer. Furthermore, the wild yeasts that are specific to lambic-style beers give gueuze a dry, cidery, musty, sour, acetic acid, lactic acid taste. Many describe the taste as sour and "barnyard-like." In modern times, some brewers have added sugar to their gueuzes to sweeten them and make the beer more appealing to a wider audience. ...

It probably helped me ease into appreciating the style to have first encountered one of the sweetened versions.

In hunting for references this morning about gueuze, I was surprised to learn that it is often paired with another favorite of mine, seafood. It just so happens that Lord Hobo has seafood on the menu.

I had been planning to visit Lord Hobo the next time I found myself in Cambridge on a weekend, but the place merits a special trip as soon as I have time to make it there.

Fernando's email was titled, "Ready for Friday?" I am, now -- or at least I will be when I have a little less to do.

-- CAV

PS: I essentially got to write this post twice and had to add a couple of lines to the title thanks to misspelling "gueuze" on my first attempt to search the beer list.