3 Fonteinen Millennium Geuze
(transl.)
In big oak casks, more than 100 years of age, lambic ripens. Specially for you, the best of lambics have been selected, blended, and bottled. By refermentation in the bottle Millennium was created, the superior geuze!
Geuze Millennium has been bottled in the autumn of 1998. It contains only wheat, malt and hops. Not pasteurised and spontaneously refermented in the bottle.
In big oak casks, more than 100 years of age, lambic ripens. Specially for you, the best of lambics have been selected, blended, and bottled. By refermentation in the bottle Millennium was created, the superior geuze!
Geuze Millennium has been bottled in the autumn of 1998. It contains only wheat, malt and hops. Not pasteurised and spontaneously refermented in the bottle.
4.3
247 reviews
Beersel, Belgium
Community reviews
Bottle - pours a pale amber color. Nose is slight funk and tart, slightly oxidized. Highly carbonated. Taste is slightly tart/lemony but oxidized.
At the multi-national tasting held in Rome-Italy on 29/08/2015 (Jow, Mortlach, ippopotamo36 and Marco). an epic sharing (bottle) of Mortlach, many thanks man! Pours golden dark cloudy color, quite bright with a big and persistent white foamy head. Nose: a bit of a vinegar (sadly), dusty, wild yeast, cheesy. Mouth: very fruity, blast of sourness, flat body. This epic beer is getting a bit too old and in descending phase, bummer!
Huge thanks to Mortlach for sharing this at Rome tasting and not one to leave beer behind I got to have a lot of a beer I never thought I’d get to try. Orange pour slight white head. Sour wood, funky cheese and citrus on nose. Tastes of lemon, lime, basement, slight vinegar, oak, slight cheese. Imagine the age has mellowed this and it’s doing great. Amazing part of amazing beer day. Thanks Luca.
Thanks Joost for helping me rate a very hard to find beer. You and your wife make great food and are extremely generous even to us American beer geeks. Enjoyed @ DHVL for 125 Euros split 2 ways. Actually, I poured a half glass for some Americans sitting beside me to also try...they also got my dregs which is great..this is an old beer and I’m not convinced the dregs would be any good.
A - Great color. A bronze color with a 2 finger dense cream-like head. fully carbed!!!
S - Smells pretty good for a bottle that’s so old. Aroma is blue cheese, lemon skin, a mild oak and light acidity.
T - Taste is good. Acidity and sour is very well balanced. Peach. Kiwi, tropical fruits and a solid lemon presence. For sure a 3F Geuze with a great overall balance despite its age.
M - Very sticky on the teeth. Really coats the mouth.
O - Very enjoyable! I was given the option to take this home and drink there and honestly, if you are going to rate a beer of this age, enjoy it at the cellar it was bought and stored in and kept for the life of the bottle. To take this away , ship it home and store @ my cellar and drink in a year might have significantly changed things. It was nice to have on-site with some good stew and cheese and frites. Prost.
My 1600 beer review. Bottle sample poured from the master himself! Finally one of my biggest wants! Poured a Fuzzy yellow golden colour with a fluffy white head. Still a lot of carbonation after all those years.
Lot of musky yeast, dust, Bread, tart lemons, funk, sour acid, lot of funky barnyard, not as sour as i was expecting but boy this has such a smooth finish! Some green apples, melon, this is still true class! Maybe the best geuze i’ve had. Incredible experience, the smoothest geuze i’ve had. Lovely
Pours hazy unclear bubbly golden orange with a grayish white head. Aroma is sweet viney and light tarty yeast. Flavor is quite tart with subtle bitters and some grapey yeast notes with carbonation still prevalent!
Bottle opened for Beernblues2 10k mini-tasting. Whoa! This is pretty amazing. Poured a cloudy, orange pour with a nice fluffy off-white head. Long lasting head that is still sticking around after a long while. Aroma was subtle tartness, with a nice lemony zest note. Very melow, subtle sweetness that builds to a wonderful light mandarin orange finish. Ver delicate, held up amazingly. Thar be walez.
Bottle, my 10,000th rating, graciously poured from Travlr’s cellar!!! Gene, thank you very much for this rare gem! Pours very clear dark gold with rapidly rising small bubbles and a medium, fizzy cream colored head, long retention but no lacing. Aroma is freshly squeezed lemons, earthy black walnuts and wheat malt with funky and barnyard yeast notes. Some light phenolics enter late. Flavor is tart and lactic grapes, lemon notes, earthy and cellared wheat and black walnuts with a dry finish. Light body and moderate carbonation. This does not suck!
Bottle thanks rciesla. Orange pour with white head. Funky, oak, tart aromas. Has mellowed out, dry and funky tones, sour and wild flavors.
Pours cloudy orange with fine thick white head.
Blood orange with lemon zest on oak. Med-hi carbonation. Slight horse blanket funk, with a noticeable acidity. Complex with a relatively fast dry finish that leaves grapefruit on the tongue.
Bottle thanks to Minh. Pours a cloudy orange with small frothy white head that lasts. The aroma is strong funk, orange peel, hemp. Thick mouthfeel, nice funk, sweet orange grove, and good punch of sour, complex, amazing.
Thnx to dennoman !
Pours clear , orange to blonde .
Big , fast fading white head .
Smell is pure , extremely funky , woody , 3 fonteinen . Bit of dust .
Taste is fleshy , sour , woody , funk , 3 fonteinen_taste in a typical , intense yet elegant way . Very full . Very damn nice !
courtesy of Jean Moeder - cloudy orange beer with a persistent white foam; aroma of barnyard, cheese, pineapples; fizzy and fairly sour; medium-bodied, very dry and fruity, barnyard-like and cheese finish
Bottle (750 ml). Hazy bright golden with a foamy white head and little lacing. Aroma is so fresh after all those years, while also being dusty and musty (not in a bad way), that it is completely amazing. There’s peppermint notes that are perfectly integrated with the barnyard and the wood presence as well as hay, funk, apple and some fruitiness. Taste is also minty with lemony notes, mold, dust, barnyard, hay, wood and apples. Moderate sourness. Medium body, but also a very special mouthfeel that I can’t describe accurately... kind of velvety while being woodsy too. Medium/lively carbonation. Dry finish. This beer is just unreal. The aroma is especially divine. I kept some in my glass all night just to be able smell it again and again. The balance is perfect and this beer might as well be, at the same time, the most complex and the most refreshing beer I ever had. Without a doubt, the is the best beer I have ever drank. It was hard to only rate the taste 9 out of 10, but the aroma is just so out of this world that I wasn’t able to give the taste the same score even if it’s nearly perfect. What is so sad is the rarity of this beer as it would be my perfect "everyday" gueuze.
Green bottle, 75 cl, from and with Philippe Boutin (merci!), savoured on December 13 2013; eye: apple sauce, hazy, no effervescence, tiny ring of beige head, no lacing; nose: sourness, wild yeasts, green apple, light woody, refreshing, musk; mouth: sourness, wild yeasts, green apple, light woody, refreshing, musk, dry finale in musk with presence of Brettanomyces yeast, medium body, good carbonation, slick texture; overall: quite fine
FRANÇAIS
Bouteille verte, 75 cl, 7 %, de et avec Philippe Boutin (merci!), savourée le 13 décembre 2013; œil : compote de pomme, voilée, pas d’effervescence, petit anneau de mousse beige, pas de dentelle; nez : aigreur, levures sauvages, pomme verte, léger boisé, rafraîchissante, musc; bouche : aigreur, levures sauvages, pomme verte, léger boisé, rafraîchissante, musc, finale sèche en musc avec présence de levure Brettanomyces, corps moyen, bonne carbonatation, texture coulante; en résumé : bien bon
Bottle: Poured a hazy dirty yellowish color lambic with a generous foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of Brett notes with some horse blanket notes with some tart notes also discernible. Taste is a very nice mix between some tart notes with light oak undertones, some horse blanket and wet leather notes offset by light green apple notes. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. I am surprised this has hold on after so many years. I really enjoyed the mix between the complex notes of wild yeast and the perfect drinkability level.
Bottle @ Too many geuze’s only one toilet, Ulfborg 2012. Hazy orange of color with an off white head. An aroma of appels, sour and weak sweets. A flavor of horseback, sour, weak sweets and dry.
Bottle provided by and shared with Nelson (awful, but I don’t remember your ratebeer screenname) winter of ’08-’09. He provided this and I cracked a Stormaktsporter. It was nice to share both these beers with only one other person (I’m very greedy when it comes to sample size).
Aged gueuze appearance with tons of wild yeast and bacteria-produced, tight, natural carbonation creating a pillowy, long-lasting white head atop a pale-straw body. Tons of sediment in the bottle, of course.
Lemon rind and somewhat softened brett acids are slightly slow to build, but keep pouring forth, joined by soft lactic acid creating a strongly tart, but yet intriguingly balanced, easy-going nose. Cheesiness is there, lightly, but this is all about the elegance of the acids. Not a bunch of horse poop (not that there’s anything wrong with horse poop). Light touches of honey and vanilla indicate the age (seems to be the way these pale malts and wheat oxidize), but it’s just bursting forth with quality and in no way any let down by being 10 years old. Band-aid phenols emerge more easily with warming and plenty more lime and grapefruit rind. Sniffable to infinity, as the best lambics always are. Very high strength of aroma. No doubt has lost some of its intensity, less intense and more elegant is certainly a fine tradeoff.
Puckeringly tart in the mouth (though not bracingly sour), the acids polish the teeth as the lime and grapefruit flavors give way to bits of softer yogurt-like lactic notes, a fleeting touch of oily acetic acid or some sort of earthy/musty note, and a very soft, yet incredibly supple mouthfeel, no doubt ushered on in a big way by the now almost creamy-like carbonation. Has passed its peak in intensity, but this is nowhere near tired or declining. These lambics take on even more character with time. With extended warming and breathing, a cheesiness intertwined with lemons and light sugar cookies emerges, sitting on the palate through the finish, tending less tart as the bottle progresses. Has held up unbelievably well. Sure, I do wish I could have tried this five years ago, but it’s still a treat and an absolutely exquisite beer. It’s difficult to find fault with anything here. There are certainly personal preferences I would like differently about this beer, but nothing constructive that should be changed about the beer. Man I hate scoring these things. I suppose it’s not the most complex of the older lambics I’ve had, could use a bit more depth or pure funk. But again, that’s how I see 3Fonteinens gueuzes, more refined/elegant than Cantillon, but with, ultimately, less wild, bizarre, barnyard funk. Thanks Nelson, hope we can reconnect. Score reflects more of where I imagine this beer would have been 5-6 years ago. 9/5/8/5/18
Bottle drunk 8/13/16
This, along with Crianza Helena were the standouts of a very, very impressively stacked tasting. This thing has held up really well, and was even better than remembered. Rich and soft, with tons of fruity brett, easygoing, aromatic, funky horseblanket and rich lactic acids. Still wonderfully carbonated with a perfect texture and tons of dry wood, earth, must and yogurt-lemon character to balance the more vibrant, juicy brett character. Upping the score, this has to be one of the best single batches of lambic produced. 10/5/9/5/19
Bottle @ Epic Sour Sourpuss Tasting, thnx to a non RateBeerian friend. Really looking forward to opening this bottle, cellared since ’98. Big yeast sediment cling on the side of the bottle. Carefully poured, it shows a clear blonde beer with a decent amount of off white head on top. Carbonation is amazing after all these years. Aroma is granny smith apples, tartness, oak and age. Big mellowed out fruit tones are noticeable, making this quite complex but at the same time not so complex as I’d hoped for. Flavor is light sour, almost sweet like a faro, some stringent tart notes shine trough in the body. Some touches of sugar and yeast in the background. Fizzy mouthfeel with decent carbonation, well balanced. Nice one.
75cl bottle sample courtesy of a friend.
Funky aroma. Good carbonation. A little tart. Very complex.
Bottle shared at the epic sour sourpuss tasting, massive thanks to a non-ratebeer friend. Pours fairly hazy golden with an off white head. Aroma of big funk and horse blanket, oak, musty cellar, dank, mold and old tart fruits. Flavor is light to moderate sweet and light moderate sour. Velvety smooth mouthfeel and incredibly complex palate, developing with each sip. Leather coming out and light citrus touches. Full bodied with (still!) light carbonation. Feel so lucky to have had the chance to try this. Damn..,
Opened at the 2013 end of year Ottawa tasting, thanks to Boutip for breaking this one out. Opens with a surprising pop, pale yellow with a fluffy white head. Nose is amazing - horse blanked, hay, funk, epson salts, brett and very clean. Although I have not had this before my impression agreed with Phil that this is on the decline as the taste and mouthfeel does not live up to the aroma - huge carbonation, mild body, crisp, fresh, funky but overall a little thin and makes you wanting for more.
Incredible! Pours dirty orange with some light head. Nose is lots of barnyard with notes of lemon, vinegar. Tastes was medium to heavy sour. Light to medium body with good acidic bite. Nuts!
750 ml bottle at Stockholm tasting. I didn’t fancy myself a lambic drinker, until I tried this. Pours with amazing vigor. Color is a deep amber with a wonderfully fluffy head. Aroma is incredibly complex: some hoppiness on the nose, but deep funk and sourness from the yeast and cask. Wood, leather, "horse blanket". Layer upon layer to be discovered with every sniff. Palate is wonderfully light and refreshing, yet deeply rich and complex at the same time. A hint of fresh fruit in there, hops, bitterness, deep leather, parmezan cheese. Overall: the best gueuze I’ve had the pleasure of trying, bar none.
A hazed golden Gueuze with a thin white head. In aroma, complex citrusy Gueuze with barnyard character, Epsom salts, Brett, very nice and complex. In mouth smooth Gueuze with light tartness, lactic acid, light cherry, very nice. Xmas Ottawa gathering Dec 13 2013.
Bottle thanks to Dennis @ Ludvigs tasting.
Wow very lively bottle thought the gushing would never stop. Such a great beer happy i got to try this.
Amazing retention. Aroma is spectacular! "That’s from the Challenger hops," said Armand. I’m the only one who uses them." Scents of rye flour, leather, sesame, biscuits and grandma’s attic. Taste is toasted dark bread, citrus and sesame breadsticks. Wonderful.
Mikkeler SF opening A - pours darker clear golden amber, very low head. S - stronger than the 50th and oh so complex. The nose is a myriad of so many well blended notes Honey, jasmin, subtle mint, allspice and jerk spice. Musty oak, horse blanket, clover, lemon juice. M -so creamy, so mellow and round. Nice balance of sweet/tart/funk. Mf is watery up front but the palate is thicker and slightly slippery with a light tartness in the end. T - the taste follows the nose well. clover, lemon and horse blanket lead the way. Quiet sweet lemon and pie crust, vinegar, musty oak on the palate, lingering tart notes, with simple darker sugars. O - so damn good complex and round. 9
Bottle at EBT2 2013. Shared with Mathieu87 and Joris.
APPEARANCE: still very alive! huge white head, but unstable, clear blond beer.
NOSE: 3F-nose, some barnyard, quite fruity, some oxidation though, lots of horse blanket!.
TASTE: somewhat flat, amazing sour aftertaste, horse blanket, some barnyard.
Smells of softly lactic sourness with a lot of funk. Notes of mint give it a slightly (though pleasant) acetone note.
Taste is tart, not as bracingly sour and sharp as a lot of gueuze. One of the best I’ve had the good fortune to try.
Pouts lightly golden with healthy carbonation that fades quickly. Mouthfeel is spot on.