Brouwerij De Ranke ‘Mirakel’ Lambic

Rating:

“As big fans of geuze-style beers, we wanted to give our own spontaneous fermentation beer a go. To our own surprise, with success. Aside from our own Spierelambiek – our spontaneously fermented beer named after a tiny river that runs near the brewery – we use two traditional lambieks from the valley of the Senne (close to Brussels) to make a blend. One, two and three year old lambieks are used in Mirakel, our own miracle.”

Glassware: Teku.

Appearance: Slightly hazy deep golden yellow complexion. Pours with almost no head and ultra flat carbonation. Pretty standard for the style though.

Aroma: It’s got all the hallmarks of a classic Gueuze; oodles of dry musty oak, acetic lemon and lime, raw apricot, wheat grains, white wine/ vinegar and sour green apple. It’s a blend of one, two and three year old Lambic so it has that brilliant depth and complexity in spades. As it settles a delicate sweetness opens up and brings hints of honey and unripened rockmelon. Superb aroma. Up there with the best.

Flavour: Really flat, we’re used to a bit more Co2 than this. Musty oak, tart lemon and gooseberry greet the taste buds initially. Fairly funky, catty and dry/peppery, lots of white wine qualities; sour apple, unripened pear, green grapes, subtle tannins and grapefruit also getting amongst it. Definitely picking up a raw almond flavour late in the piece as it finishes rather dull and inconspicuously.

Mouthfeel: As we’ve mentioned already it’s a bit too flat for our liking. Still, it has a nice light, crisp and mineraly texture. Mild-medium body. 5.5% ABV is spot on.

Overall: It probably didn’t finish off the way we’d hoped. Couldn’t fault the aroma but the flavour profile (although good) and the texture/Co2 wasn’t enough to propel it up amongst the likes of Cantillon, 3F etc. Not a bad crack though.