United Nations of Beer

La Geuze de Kamouraska

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB HQ)

La Geuze de Kamouraska

If you've never been to England, then you've never had TRUE scrumpy cider. So it will be hard for you to appreciate some of the comments I'll make about this odd brew.

Fortunately for my own sanity, I had researched the geuze style of beer before tasting this. Otherwise I am certain I would have run screaming the moment I opened the bottle. You need to like sour drinks to appreciate it. For people who hate bitterness, this might be a beer style that suits.

In any case, the unintiated will find the geuze style very unusual. I think this will be filed for most of us under the heading, "A taste that needs acquiring."

The bottle has a tremendously helpful and lovely label, not only artful but sensibly bilingual. It promises that this beer is flavoured with coriander and Curacao.

Now, I love coriander, but my limited experience with Curacao came from those desperate parties where we'd drunk everything else and the blue, weird bottle was the only thing left in the house with any booze content.

La Geuze de Kamouraska smells a little scary. If you're reminded of cider apples stored in a sack, well, we're on the same page, let's leave it at that.

The first sip and WHAM! I'm catapulted back to 1988 and a caravan holiday in Devon. My first (and last) close-up scrumpy cider experience.

The sign had a cow on it, I remember thinking, "How rustic! Must try it." A pound a pint and delicious. I took the second pint back to the bar because I was convinced it was something different. My mouth had already decided that this cider was deadly and that I should avoid it. Silly me drank two more pints and, one dance to Bros and a vomit later, I had a hangover from hell.

A bit unfair on La Geuze de Kamouraska, as it's not SO similar to cider, but you will undoubtedly notice that they have certain elements in common.

There's no getting past the sourness of this geuze. You are either going to detest it, or have your head turned. I am definitely a bit of a fan, but would like to research the geuze style in more depth before passing judgement on this particular beer.

I think it would turn heads (and stomachs) wherever people are brave enough to try it. Want a unique BBQ? Serve this instead of fizzy piss and make sure you have a video camera to capture people's expressions when they try it...