3 Fonteinen Zenne y Frontera

Another snapshot from Brussels. Visiting one of the sacred places of lambic beer. And drinking the amazing sherry cask aged geuze 3 Fonteinen Zenne y Frontera. A big advantage of being in Brussels by car was that we could spend Saturday morning driving out to Beersel, visiting 3 Fonteinen and Oud Beersel and then returning to the city after a great lunch at 3 Fonteinen Restaurant.

The highlight of the whole trip was the beer for our lunch. The rare and sought after 3 Fonteinen Zenne y Frontera was worth the hype and the 50 Euros. A great experience. The lambic has been matured for a year on old Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks, and then blended into a fine geuze. 

At our table, the beer was decanted and then poured gently into our glasses. Then we started exploring. The sherry is pretty obvious, but it blends perfectly into the lambic. The complex funky aromas of 3 Fonteinen offers fresh wood, citrus fruits, herbs, grass and hay. The sherry blends in with notes of sweet grapes, dessert wines and nuts.

The flavour has the pleasant, mild tartness of most 3 Fonteinen beer and a great balance. I’m deeply satisfied with having tried the world famous Zenne y Frontera. I don’t know when a beer is worth 50 Euro, can a beer be worth that much? Compared to other beers at the same price level that I have had the opportunity to try, this was value for money. And at a fine restaurant, even.

For my lunch, I had a simple Belgian beef stew prepared with 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze. You can never go wrong with that. We had a nice chat with Thomas Debelder, had another (cheaper) beer, and then headed back to Brussels.

We had arrived in Beersel early, though. After a quick visit to the shop, where we could only get Doesjel and a few bottles of the regular Oude Geuze. Then we walked through the town up to Oud Beersel Brewery, where we sat down for a quick one and bought a few bottles of the famous, expensive, and somewhat overrated Bzart lambic series.

A walk back to 3 Fonteinen was perfectly timed and the restaurant was open when we returned. The Belgians have some interesting ideas about architechture, so a simple walk through a Belgian town is a fun experience. Check out the Facebook Group Ugly Belgian Houses for more.