Brasserie Cantillon - Gueuze 100% Lambic

This is a special, one-time offer for our Rare Beer Club members that we’re not likely to be able to repeat anytime soon. Given some difficulties securing timely shipment of Fantôme’s Hiver, as originally planned for our special offer, the importer was willing to part with more than a few cases of a beer that most retailers get only one case of—if they get any at all. The goal, kindly enough, being to make up to our members for the Hiver trouble. Only 50 or so cases of this make it stateside each year, and it’s pretty much impossible to find in any retail stores reliably. If you do find it, it can sell for anywhere from $30 to $75 apiece. Rare stuff!

Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic, like pretty much anything from Cantillon these days, does not last on shelves for any considerable amount of time—even given the above prices. The 50-case annual U.S. allotment readily has demand 50 times that... But there’s only so much.

Briefly: this is essentially the flagship beer of the world’s most beloved lambic producer. It’s incredibly limited in production, and an artful and damn-near timeless expression of lambic: pouring a hazy, yellowish-orange color, similar to honey; the intensity of tartness and funky elements eventually becomes very clear, bracing, and unabashedly sour. This blend of one-, two-, and three-year-old lambic is among the world’s very finest: tart, complex, refreshing. Touches of oak appear, but subtly—with edges of vanilla and almonds and gentle tannins.

This is a beer every aficionado should try at least twice. It’s masterful lambic, and a beer so many other brewers learned from.

The brewery suggests this might very well last longer than your cellar—with examples having remained exceptional and bright even 20 years after bottling. Enjoy some early bottles of this one, but definitely don’t be afraid to forget about some either. Future you won’t mind at all.