Beer Review: Rivertown’s Ville De Rivere Geuze

Fancy name for a fancy style of beer. The style is a blending of 2+ lambics of different vintages. In this case Rivertown blended a 1-year old lambic with a 3-year old lambic, which is slightly curious because Rivertown’s barely been open for 3 years. So this 3-year old lambic must be from their first batch or something like that, kinda cool. Something else before moving onto the beer is that Rivertown is spelling it geuze whereas everyone else spells it gueuze. Hopefully one of the guys from Rivertown will drop a comment about why they choose to spell it that way or if it’s just a typo on the packaging.

Brewery: Rivertown Brewing Company
Beer: Ville De Rivere Geuze
Style: Gueuze
Alcohol by Volume: 6.3%

No head what so ever, there were a few bubbles while I was pouring but it’s all gone. The color is pretty dead on for straw or hay and the clarity is a bit on the hazy side.

The aroma reminds me of farms, there is also a bit of sourness getting to my nose.

Woo that is some taste. It is extremely sour and I definitely puckered up on the first sip. OK, so it’s not THAT sour but I would prefer to lean on the side of exaggeration since most beers are not sour at all. Also as you get into it more the sourness becomes less pronounced. Not sure if this is due to warming or just getting used to it. Sourness aside there is more going on here: Wheat zing, some malt body, “barnyard” stuff and no sweetness or bitterness to speak of.

Mouth feel is very light and tart.

I’m not the biggest fan of sour beers. I like them every once in a while, but can’t drink them too often. They’re definitely a great diversion from IPAs, lagers, and stouts. If you digg sour flavors then pick this up. If you’ve never tried a sour beer before maybe start with Rivertown’s lambic. If you like it, then check out the geuze since it’s a more complex version of lambic.

As of posting you can get this at Rivertown’s tap room, limit 2 per customer at $14 a pop. Sometime this week or next it should start showing up on shelves of better beer sellers around town, but expect it to be rare. If you find 1 then get 2. If you like the first bottle stick the second in your basement for as long as your patience allows. 3 – 20 years is a good range for cellering from what I’ve read online. If you don’t like the first bottle you can probably trade the second for all kinds of awesomeness.