A friend just brought me back a nice haul from France. What is everyone’s opinions on the proper aging for these beers? I can post a list of what I have you like.
Pretend it’s Burgundy; properly stored, it will last as long as you can keep your hands off of it, and will provide something of interest at every level of its evolution.
And that’s true for the whole range? And for bottles in 750 and 375?
Next time you and Bowden come to town, give me a call and we’ll find out. I’ve been sitting on a nice cache and don’t want to share them with people who won’t appreciate them.
Bowden won’t appreciate them! 
Seriously, I might be there at the end of January.
Ha! let me know, Bank has been bugging me to bring some beers in.
I have 16 year old 375s of Rose de Gambrinus whose acidity is still screaming. In my opinion all well made lambics do well with at least 3-5 years under their belts ( I’m excluding the sugar bombs Lindeman’s make) to help the acidity calm down, and beyond that it’s more about how long you can keep your hands off them.
John,
Post which ones you have.
Mamouche
Lou Pepe Kriek 2011
Rose de Gambrinus
Iris
Kriek 100% Lambic Bio
Fou’ Foune
Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio
Grand Cru Bruocsella 2010
Thanks Brian.
Most of what I’ve had has be when I’ve been somewhere and be lucky enough to have seen it available so having the option to hold some seems cool.
Looking back, one of the luckiest things of my life was growing up in Brussels and drinking Lambics, Geuze, and all sorts of odd ball beers from 1989-1992, when I was 14-17 years old, while my friends in the States raved about Keystone Light. Our domestic of choice was Maes-Pils or Jupiler.
John-
Are these single bottles? If you have multiples, cellaring decisions become a lot easier. Setting aside Mamouche which I have never been lucky enough to try, but have heard nothing but “age it”. It is going to be herbal & very sour when young.
Lou Pepe, I would just say drink it on a special occasion. Soon or later.
Brian makes a good point that these are going to be stable for as long as you want to hold them. I would add that you can make cellaring decisions on how you like your wild/sour ales. When young, they are going to be highly acidic, puckering sour. As they warm in the glass, you catch the complexity. The more age you give them, the more you see the yeast taking over during the bottle conditioning. Your caveats to this are:
Fermentation becoming too volatile & you lose half the bottle like a gushing volcano when it opens. The upside is that Cantillon has much less of this than pretty much any other producer of wild ales. Largely because many of their yeasts are something like a thousand years old or something & they know what they are doing.
If you don’t like the yeast, in this case Brett taking over too much character of the beer. In the cases of Kriek & Fou Foune the cherries & apricots will give way to the yeast slowly but surely.
This is personal preference, so I’d say make your cellaring decisions based on how you like to drink your wild ales. I drank a 2010 Kriek earlier this week & it was in a great place. The cherries owned the nose, but the palate was showing a killer combo of earthiness & spice to add to the sour cherry character.
You shut your mouth…just remember where your Cantillon bread is buttered!
I’ve had the Mamouche…I’d drink that as fast as possible…or age it forever. I didn’t like it, I found it to be sub-par in Cantillon quality. I’d rather have ANY OTHER Cantillon. I know it’s rare, but to me it was horrible. (tasted during 2012 Zwanze day).