Chapeau X'mas Gueuze - Brouwerij De Troch

zonker17

Illinois

2.25/5  rDev -18.5%

03-05-2013 02:05:01 | More by zonker17

harpus

Alabama

2.75/5  rDev -0.4%

03-27-2013 14:31:56 | More by harpus

t0rin0

California

3.5/5  rDev +26.8%

09-02-2012 19:46:33 | More by t0rin0

GRG1313

California

3.73/5  rDev +35.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

I can't resist reviewing this beer. Let's just summarize and say yes, it's very, very sweet. However, there are some real redeeming qualities, as long as you don't expect a tart, sour traditional lambic or gueuze.

Pours crystal clear medium copper orange with no head at all. Very clear and nice looking.

Nose is burnt bananas and over cooked stone fruit with a strong orange candy undertone. There is a sweet tart undertone, highlighted by the sweet tones, not the acidic tones - but they are there. Not unpleasant, as long as you're ok with sweet.

Mouthfeel is very clean, almost refreshing, lightly tart, lightly acidic and with almost no carbonation. Not bad at all. There is a pleasant sweet fruit vinegar acidic mouth feel.

Flavor profile is the real issue here. I think I'm tasting a newer or well stored bottle. There is some oxidation but in a good way. The primary flavor profile is very sweet, thick and assertive cooked apricots or strong apple juice or cider.

Flavor profile is like a sweetened compote of stone fruits. It's actually very nice, unless your expectations were for a tart/sour lambic or gueuze - that this is not! There are hints of tart and hints of sour. But, truth be known, this tasted like a lightly carbonated cider; apple or apricot cider. Lightly oxidized apple juice is the pefect description and I don't find it offensive or bad - just not typical lambic or gueuze.

Real question is what did the brewer intend? If brewer wanted traditional - no success; he he/she wanted a sweet and somewhat refreshing relatively low alcohol pleasant drink- then success. You be the judge. I'd drink it cold and as a refreshing sweet "juice" drink.

Serving type: bottle

08-01-2012 18:58:04 | More by GRG1313

chinchill

South Carolina

1.63/5  rDev -40.9%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1.5

12.7 oz bottle, capped and corked, served in a snifter. Bottle has a thick coat of sludge in the bottom; several chunks got poured despite my effort to avoid this. The beer remained clear, nonetheless, with the chunks and pieces on the bottom; so no harm done I believe.

Pours clear orange brown with minimal headl

S: very tart but over-ripe fruit; a strong, off-putting aroma of decayed wood; earthy and funky.

T: Both sweet and tart.Even worse that the aroma, but not by much. Altogether, rather unpleasant funky and medicinal flavor featuring wet wood, green apples and very old light-colored fruit juice.

M - medium body; low carbonation -- undercarbonated.

O - Gueuze is a variable style with which I have little familiarity. That and the poor quality of this brew led me to think I had a spoiled bottle ... until I saw other reviews with similar reactions. A particularly poor Belgian - Avoid!

Happy to finish the brew so I can pour out the remainder and cleanse my palate with a good beer.

Serving type: bottle

07-10-2012 00:56:43 | More by chinchill

cofeeguru

Minnesota

4/5  rDev +44.9%

07-08-2012 03:26:54 | More by cofeeguru

imperialking

Illinois

2.5/5  rDev -9.4%

02-15-2012 02:26:34 | More by imperialking

matjack85

Illinois

2.63/5  rDev -4.7%
look: 1.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

I found this 12.7oz capped and corked green bottle at Sal's Liquors in Addison, IL for $4.99. My bottle labels itself as Winter Guezue rather than Christmas Guezue, although Santa Clause is definitely on the front label. No bottled on date on mine.

The beer poured a dark apple juice color that had some pinkish tinting to it when held to the light. There was absolutely no head and no lacing, but there are a gazillion bubbles and you'll get lots of unattractive floaties if you're not careful with your pour.

This is a very earthy smelling beer. It has a little Belgian funk to it, but it mostly smells like wood and a rosin bag.

Puckering tartness with big green apple flavor. After that it's just syrupy sugar.

Medium thickness with low carbonation.

It's not horrible, but it's not the best example of a guezue either.

Serving type: bottle

02-08-2012 10:01:32 | More by matjack85

homebrew311

Illinois

2.38/5  rDev -13.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Carefully decanted into a Petrus glass to keep the nasty sludge from ending up in the glass...

A: pours a clear amber color with no head, minimal lacing

S: nose is funky and acidic, lots of oak, some cork, bubblegum, and white grapes

T: taste starts off with a bit of funky geuze goodness, but quickly takes a turn to a diabetic coma inducing sweetness, taste is similar to heavy syrup, quite off putting, totally loses all of it wild characteristics

MF: thick and syrupy with minimal carbonation

O: the aroma was nice but the taste...not so much. Terrible balance, bad example of style.

Serving type: bottle

02-03-2012 07:51:39 | More by homebrew311

requiem960

Florida

3.5/5  rDev +26.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Appearance: (I drank this from a wine glass) Pours like a mildly carbonated apple juice with a slight ruby coloration. There is absolutely no head or lacing in the glass.

Smell: Tart apple/cherry with a light woody scent.

Taste: Subtle taste of dark cherry, apple in a wine-ish atmosphere. There is definitely a candy flavoring going on inside my glass. As it warms, there is a taste that I can't narrow down whether being cork, or maybe a slight cask taste, or a mild tobacco. This is also a bit more sweet than most Gueuze beers.

Mouthfeel: Thin-bodied and very light on the carbonation.

Drinkability: Enjoyable in a different way, but I wouldn't want more than one of these a year. Definitely worth a try. On the 100 point scale I'd give it a 75%, C average. I think this is worth a try and a beer to add your holiday season "to drink list!"

Serving type: bottle

01-02-2012 04:22:15 | More by requiem960

AdamBear

Pennsylvania

2.4/5  rDev -13%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 2 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

A-amber slightly transparent. lots of bubbles with no head at all

S-smells fairly tart. candy sugars. green apple, caramel, and winter spices. good strength!

T-comes in tasting like caramel apple flavored candy....definitely not of very high quality. it then gets a roasted nut flavor that seems to last as an after-taste. all in all, its of low quality and tastes....kinda gross.

M-resembles juice more than any style of beer.

O-gueuzes range from gross to beautiful, this is sadly on the lower end of that spectrum. its fresh too, so i know its not a spoiled bottle. it just has too many gross flavors and the mouthfeel is just terrible.

Serving type: bottle

12-12-2011 05:35:16 | More by AdamBear

sweemzander

Illinois

1.6/5  rDev -42%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

12.7oz. capped and corked bottle poured into a tumbler.

(A)- Pours a dirty cider-brown color. Some white bubles.

(S)- Lots of cider-like apple aromas. Some funky earth and lactic bits. Very very earthy.

(T)- Is this a gueuze? Its is very fruit/spice forward with lots of apple/grape flavors. Little to no sourness or acidity. . . or oak even.

(M)- Very minimal carbonation level; practically flat. Little to nothing sour or acidic; just fruits. . nothing to remind me of a gueuze really.

(D)- For a gueuze, this really is a mess. For a fruit beer, its still not really even that good. Sorry to say this is an epic fail and do not waste your money on it. Whoever thought this was a gueuze needs to get his/her brain checked.

Serving type: bottle

11-26-2011 18:29:18 | More by sweemzander

Exiled

Texas

2/5  rDev -27.5%

11-24-2011 18:13:29 | More by Exiled

Avagadro

New Jersey

1/5  rDev -63.8%
look: 1 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1

A: Cap pulls with the faintest of hisses, and the cork releases no sound to speak of. The copper hued nectar pours lifelessly into the glass, with only thick chunks of sediment to break the monotony.

S: Sweet-and-sour sauce, fish sauce, and cherry cough medicine are all unpleasantly invited to the bouquet.

T: Cloying sweetness is exacerbated by the sickly sourness of the brew, which gives one the impression of drinking hoisin sauce. Off flavors run rampant in this brew, with cherry cough drops, solvent, and band-aids being most noticeable.

M: Thick, sticky, lifeless... what a mess.

D: Whoever dubbed this brew a gueuze should be shot. This is easily the most poorly executed brew I have come across since Cave Creek Chile Beer. Avoid at all cost.

Serving type: bottle

07-26-2011 19:32:48 | More by Avagadro

PEBKAC

New York

1.85/5  rDev -33%
look: 3 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Two year old bottle. Poured into a Sam Adams Perfect pint glass just because. Tainted cork reeked of vinegar & fish sauce.

Thin, hollow layer off-white head atop a slightly reddish, but mostly amber brew. Managed to keep most of the sediment out this time as well.

Smell is an odd combo of green beans, wet leaves, cherry juice, adhesive, & hard/stale water.

Taste is basically cherry syrup & boiled vegetables, with a splash of apple cider vinegar. A saccharine sweetness, sort of like what you find in Duchesse. Light acidity & a mild bitterness akin to that buzz your throat gets when sucking on pesticide laden fruit.

Constantly frothy, but nearly flat. Somewhat syrupy.

This isn't the worst thing in the world. It's just not brewed with you in mind. Still doesn't make it any good.

Serving type: bottle

04-23-2011 05:07:38 | More by PEBKAC

johnwarne

Florida

2.2/5  rDev -20.3%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

A beer haiku for you:

"Not really my style--
Lambic un-extraordinaire!
Belgian not worthy."

OK: as a Belgian connoisseur I recognize that lambic/gueuze's are a breed all their own, but even so....too sickly sweet, too much of a poseur for my liking. Glad I tried--to rule out for future sessions.

Cheers!

Serving type: bottle

01-12-2011 02:23:37 | More by johnwarne

babaracas

Florida

2.13/5  rDev -22.8%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5

Chapeau Winter Gueuze by the label. Pours a clear orange-brown with absolutely zero head. Smell: the nose is very offputting. Yes there are some light fruity notes ala flavored lambic, but no sour gueuze notes and the overwhelming character is something really nasty that I can't quite put my finger on - not quite tobacco, not quite wet newspaper, not quite zoo shit... but just bad. Taste: tobacco, raspberry, sweet with just a little cider vinegar acidic character. Doesn't seem to be in the right style listing. This is going to be a drainpour pretty soon...

Serving type: bottle

11-02-2010 06:00:31 | More by babaracas

womencantsail

California

1.93/5  rDev -30.1%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5

Thanks to Bobby as I finally wrap up the torture that has been the Chapeau lineup of lambics.

A: The pour is a dark amber sort of color, much darker than pretty much any other gueuze that I have come across.

S: A strong fruity smell right away with some plums, cherries, and strawberries. Underneath some weird mix of tobacco and herbs, along with some wet wood and earth. I don't dislike any of these aromas individually, but they just don't work all that well in concert.

T: A distinct bile/vomit flavor that I just can't ignore. The fruits are there again, but so is a strong herbaceous character (pine or rosemary?). Intensely sweet and sugary, just like so many other Chapeau beers.

M: The body is medium, and a bit sticky and syrupy, with a moderate level of carbonation.

D: I don't have too much else to say about this other than the flavor is just completely off-putting. As is any beer with a strong bile component.

Serving type: bottle

09-12-2010 20:18:59 | More by womencantsail

Gueuzedude

Arizona

2.53/5  rDev -8.3%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

Best By September 2011; Sampled July 2010
What travesty do you have to be a part of to be one of the worst Gueuzes on the planet, this and many other questions will be answered as I try this beer that has extra, added "flavors" in it.

As I pop the cork out it smells distinctly of cherries. The beer pours with a pale tan, one-finger thick head. It is topped by a concentrated amber / red color, it shows a red amber hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells of a confusing mix of tobacco, charred ash, cedar and green freshly crushed tree leaves of some sort. It finishes with a touch of lactic tartness that gets mixed in with that herbaceaous tree, sort of pine aroma, though not in all that pleasant of a manner. The aroma is actually quite interesting if you take each component as an individual, the whole is really not all that appealing though. The cherry notes are the most noticeable and make it at least appealing enough to take a sip.

Sweet and very cherry like up front, the beer finishes with that weird tree-herbal note found in the aroma, except that it is not quite as noticeable. Wow, this is exceedingly sweet, and if it weren't for the oh so weird finish, I wouldn't be able to get past the cherry notes. Only faintly tart, though it would be more so if there wasn't so much sugary sweetness present. This is a bit sticky, and syrupy in the texture department.

There is really not much more to say about this. It is not as horrific as I had feared, but it certainly has some really weird, herbal / tree like notes to it.

Serving type: bottle

07-25-2010 20:13:44 | More by Gueuzedude

Mora2000

Texas

2.2/5  rDev -20.3%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Pours orange brown with a white head. The aroma is very odd and not too good. This beer smells exactly like French's Yellow Mustard. You also get a little cherry or strawberry. The flavor is similar, only sweeter. Picture a sweet mustard with a little cherry thrown in. Thin mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Serving type: bottle

01-21-2010 06:11:31 | More by Mora2000

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

2.73/5  rDev -1.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

I couldn't work up much of a head but there was a lightly hazy white head floating atop the beer. Nose was sour cherry - kriek. Color was a fairly clear deep amber. Mouthfeel was somewhat thin, taste was somewhat tart, but overall, not much on which to report. Finish was really sweet. I have had MUCH better from Chapeau.

Serving type: bottle

12-18-2009 21:12:36 | More by woodychandler

scruffwhor

Illinois

2.93/5  rDev +6.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Pours a tobacco and rust amber that was still clear. Very quick head, but pretty good bubbling. The aroma has some definite funkiness. Makes me think of a kriek along with cocktail shrimp and cocktail sauce. The taste has a funky and middle of th road kriek flavor. Like some old cherries just a day away from being unedable. utlets not forget the cocktail sauce and shrimp flavor at the end. The palate is tart, but fruity and weirdly funky. Glad I tried this beer. But will never buy again.

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2009 06:35:09 | More by scruffwhor

armock

New York

3.48/5  rDev +26.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

A - Poured a brown color with an off white head that leaves lacing

S - Has a very sweet fruity smell kinda like apple juice

T - Follows the nose with the very sweet fruity flavors

M - This beer has full body with a higher level of carbonation to it

D - I don't really know much about the style this was the first one that I've had I think but I kind enjoyed this one a little sweet for me but still good

Serving type: bottle

02-01-2009 20:08:34 | More by armock

HardTarget

Texas

3.6/5  rDev +30.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A) Tan brown glass with a thin cover that dropped to a thin collar that didn't lace.

S) Very woody, cork like, with vinegar and must. Old, rotten wood.

T) Very surprising given the smell. Overripe cherry, honey and a mineral bite like iron or copper.

M) Coats the whole mouth with a lasting oily film. Firm carbonation that isn't fizzy. Medium to light body.

O) The smell/taste discrepancy is amazing! All nasty cork in the nose but a fruity cherry taste. Enjoyed it!

Serving type: bottle

01-16-2009 04:51:44 | More by HardTarget

stumac

Texas

3.85/5  rDev +39.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Found this little bombshell on a trip to Austin....

this brew pours up a nice red amber color with a small off white head. the nose is cherries, candy sugar, light sourness. the taste is sour cherries, a lil cork, subtle oak, medium bodied, low carbo, I like Chapeau...

Serving type: bottle

10-28-2008 17:15:33 | More by stumac