Vintage 2014 (New Glarus Brewing, Wisconsin, USA; 6%):

A brewery special release, this is New Glarus’ take on a gueuze, complete with spontaneous fermentation and the blending of one, two and three year old beers aged on oak. Carefully poured, it has a lightly hazy, light gold colour and a citrus – mostly floral lemon – and yellow plum aroma, along with ample wet hay and horseblanket. The body is fuller than you’d expect of a true Belgian gueuze, with sweet, tangy and tart flavours right up front, then a drier, still tart and quite lemony middle with firm acidity and background notes of green grapes, and finally a bone-dry finish with hints of lemon zest and lemon thyme. In the style of a gueuze, for certain, but wonderfully different, too.