The basement of "3 Fonteinen" more resembled a winery that a brewery.
Wooden barrels everywhere. Except for where the bottles were. There was a
little space for working but the vast majority of the cellar was used for
storage. The working spaces were for blending of old and new lambics, mixing
lambics with fruit, or sweetening lambics with candi sugar. Then, either
rebarrelling for another fermentation or for serving upstairs, or bottling
for conditioning. Guido kept saying how only the traditional methods were
practiced at "3 Fonteinen". No filtering, pasteurising or artificial
flavoring or sweetening would ever be tolerated as long as he and Armand had
their say.

     He showed us the new batch of gueuze that they had bottled recently.
The other batches that had been bottled at different times over the last
several years. Then he showed us the reserved batch, the oldest one, with
not that many bottles left and he said that if we wanted one we could order
it upstairs in the restaurant even though they were no longer for sale. Then
he showed us something very special. Something that would only be sold at a
special time for a special price for a very special occasion. "Millennium
Gueuze". It seems that everyone is caught up in the madness that is the
celebration of the year 2000. If it's half as good as 1999, I'll be happy.
Although from a business angle I understand that if a bunch of number crazy
people want to spend an inordinate amount of cash for something just because
it says "Millennium" on the label and you have a product that can oblige,
you would be foolish not to take it. Armand and Guido were not foolish, not
by a long shot.

     We noticed that the newer lambics didn't have the little white dash of
paint on the bottle to indicate the top side that the older bottles had.
Guido told us that due to new regulations all new bottles had to be labeled.
Just another tradition of hundreds or maybe a thousand or so years wiped out
due to bureaucratic meddling.

     We chatted for a while as we walked through the rows and rows of
bottles. Guido still talking about how the traditional methods were the best
and produced the only true lambics and how he and his brother planned to
carry on the tradition for as long as they could. It makes me wonder if I
will ever consume  true, unfiltered, unpasteurised lambic again. I sure hope
so. At any rate there are a few more with my name on them this day.

     We thank our host for the tour and retire to a table upstairs where
it's time for lunch. It is still the "time of the asparagus" in this region
so we all order dishes with the delicious white asparagus, along with a
bottle of the reserve gueuze. The beer, more like a dry wine than beer,
complimented the meal perfectly. It was served with great care carried to
the table in a little wicker basket that allowed it to stay in the sideways
position in which it had been stored for who knows how many years. It was
poured carefully into our glasses so as to keep the yeast attached to the
bottom side of the bottle. When it was nearly done you could see the lattice
like pattern that it had formed upon settling. The beer was like the younger
lambics we had drunk earlier but rounder, fuller. Itself, an experience.
What a meal! It was close to orgasmic. As close as I want to get in public
anyway.

     After the gueuze I tried a faro. I think it was the best of the lot,
not putting down the gueuze. The whole idea of adding candi sugar to the
beer and then serving it before the yeast can turn the sugar into alcohol
didn't sound that great to me. Who wants a sweet beer? But I had wanted to
try it for a while, and what better place to do it. The beer wasn't sweet.
The sugar was just enough to round out the sour dryness of the lambic and
balance the flavor. Dynamite!

     As we were sitting at our table we saw Armand and Guido sitting at a
table with an older man who had bee there the whole time that we were. From
his looks I would say he was their father. Upon walking through the
restaurant and looking at all the pictures on the wall, one stood out. The
older man, Armand, Guido and Michael Jackson, a true pioneer. Thanks to
Mike, Zeke, Tony and I had found our way to Belgium and this special place
and had an afternoon like none other. We bid our farewells and were off.

     Later that afternoon we drove a lot. Tried to find the village of
Schepdaal looking for the In De Rare Vos. They serve a dish with horse there
and Zeke and I wanted to try it, but the village was on no maps and we
couldn't find anyone to direct us in a language we could both understand.
After driving a while through scenic little villages and stopping at a bank
to convert most of our money back to American we headed back to Brussels.
There we found a whole new part of town and it took us about an hour and a
half to find our way back to the hostel where we got a new room, went to it
and crashed.

Next time - Preparing to go home

Pictures - Gueuze in the rack, on the table