Beer: Beersel Zwet.be
Brewery: Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen (Belgium)
Style: Porter- Other
7% ABV / 40 IBU

This unique brew is no longer in production, so of course we’re reviewing it now just to torture you. When it comes to uber kvlt black metal or uber kvlt black porters, we’re elitist assholes of the first order. Sorry! But this Belgian porter brewed with wild yeast is so unique that it deserves a full review. Beersel Zwet.be offers a smooth and velvety finish, with a beautiful chocolate flavor – leave it to Belgians to refine the typical American porter style.

That’s how it comes across at the top of the palate. As the beer opens up a bit, the profile takes a hard left turn thanks to the wild yeast introduced in the brewing process. Specifically, it’s wild yeast cultured from the casks Brouweij Drie Fontainen (“3 Fountains Brewery”) uses to age lambics; the Belgian brewery is known almost exclusively for its lambics and gueze blends. Maybe not so much of a “hard left turn” as a pump fake – it’s a cocoa porter with the sourness of an American Wild Ale.

Beersel Zwet,be is at once an incredible oddity as a sour porter and a benchmark for the industry as a whole – it offers a decade of proof that a brewery known for one style can soar to great heights with others. There’s anecdotal evidence that this brew will return, since distribution in the States was handled by Shelton Brothers. But also worth noting: Beersel Zwet.de was brewed by a contract brewery (DeProef), unlike most of Drie Fontainen’s beers. The recipe is rock solid and the lambic yeast can be harvested anew. If the desire is there, this one probably just needs a new production venue… please.

More more info, check out Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen here.